Discussion on:

10 dumb things users do that can mess up their computers

Do your users consistently get into trouble because they don't follow basic best practices? Do they cause problems even though they know better, or does your organization need to provide better end user training?

The most common practice on my work site is not baking up files.

Every user has a space to save thier infromation on the network. Were we backup regularly. But instead they save it on floppys which they carry without any protection. We trained them to back up, we put memos and everything to make it easy for them but they just won't learn.

setting their families up with kid only use and parent only use PCs. I have seen a few family PCs screwed up because the kids download any and everything causing problems when the parents simply want to do the bills or look for something online. Got kids, I suggest 2 PCs and aquiring some knowledge on PC use.

I know somebody that had an old printer along with the driver on floppy. So when he bought a brand new Dell he inserted the floppy and responded ?Yes? to each of the questions. This resulted in Windows being overlaid with DOS 3.1.

There really should be a five-day waiting period before someone can buy a computer. This will give enough time to determine if someone will be a burden upon society, or at least tech support, if they have a computer so that their purchase can be declined.

really kool to see.

the 1st dumb thing many home users can do is BUYing a PC !

I can't help it that you need at least 1 year's course to really understand computers (a bit) ...

After 15 minutes before the screen, they think they know it all !

is turn it on.

When they ask for help, i.e., "What is this thing doing!!, It worked just a little bit ago...but now..."

But before they contact you, they click on god knows what, delete what ever, load what ever, then cant tell you what they did. But they expect you to just walk up and make the file or app appear.

What is worse, they dont want to get up and let you look at it. They want you to tell them what to click, then its like a 3 legged race. "no, click there...NO NOT THERE!" "WHAT, I DID CLICK IT!" "Ok, go back..." "What are you talking about...I Dont even see it" and then the famous..."I Already tried that" ugggghhhh.

By the time your done their monitor has finger smudges all over it, they hate YOU, and you wasted 20 minutes on 2 mouse clicks!

hee heee.

C'mon, you're professionals, they're not -- if home users weren't around, the industry would not be growing and many of us would not have jobs.

Everyone in their own field can get self-rightous; you're stupid home-user may be the surgeon who will fix your fractured hip after you try to roof your own house

I got a call from a granny who couldn't figure out why she couldn't get her E-mail. When I checked it out, she was running a 386 with 4 megs of RAM and her 45-year old son had picked up a bunch of adware surfing porn. I upgraded them from tricycle to a Beetle and after four months they're in trouble again. Some folks just don't belong in the digital age.

Sure, home users can do stupid stuff, but we should expect a degree of that. PCs are called PCs because they are for people (Personal Computer). If they were only for people who understand them fully, then I know I wouldn't wouldn't be using one! Look at it this way-I don't know how to fix the brakes in my car, and if I had to change my own oil, I'd make a serious mess. But, I do know how to change a tire, and how to check the oil, and I even read my temperature gauge. PC users should advance to the degree of knowing that some websites will put spyware on their computers, they should know how to copy and paste, they should know their file structure, and maybe a few other things-like how to avoid the problems described in this article. To say that people shouldn't have PCs may be a little extreme. We in the industry do have to own part of the problem, because a normal person should be able to use a PC without needing an advanced education to work it... IMHO...

Oyez! Oyez! It's easy to be critical when you haven't walked a mile in THEIR shoes. I personally wouldn't want to try brain surgery either. Many intelligent people approach new technology as if it were brain surgery. Self-righteous castigation won't help anyone on the way to understanding the way around a computer.

I would like to think that the surgeon who fixes my hip isn't so uninformed on technology!

Second of all, whether you are a home user or a business, it doesn't take much to do a wee bit of research on computers and become even rudimentary knowledgeable. People who are uninformed on simple do's and don'ts on their computer do so as a result of their own choice. This is the age of technology and computer information is available everywhere and often is free. Some free resources on computers include: the internet, newspapers/magazines (either online or in libraries) and basic computer usage classes that are offered through libraries, community centres etc. Any user that chooses not to become informed and/or ignores the potential risks of clicking away on everything and downloading and sharing files with unknown users earn the computer problems they experience.

Ignorance is not an excuse in this day and age.

"Technosnobs" are the reason I went back to school. I work in a small company with only 8 units on the network but got fed up with non-professional, rude, smart alecs talking down to us. After changing support companies a few times and running into the same lack of courtesy (and shelling out the bucks for this treatment!)I decided to do it myself.

We would be out of business if we treated our customers like idiots. Get a clue, guys...

I couldn't agree more. this sounds exactly the same as when you hear a chessmaster talk about a lowly clubplayer, or, god forbid, someone who has never seen the inside of a chessclub. arguably, purchasing a computer, or begin to play chess, could rank high amongst "ten stupid things man does that could mess up his life". we all forget to tell people that if they really just want to mail and look at some pics, and maybe even play around with a small music collection, they should go for an apple. if, on the other hand, you enjoy tinkering under the hood of your system, personalizing your interaction with a great big world full of new experiences to your heart's content, then a pc is probably just your more adventurous choice. we all, at some time or other, made our own "ten really tearjerkingly stupid things I have done to my computer"-list. so let's just share what we learned, without the sly comments and the smug smile. actually, if you think it through, item ten on the list should allow you to get away with most of the others , as i do all the time. the only thing really wrong with the default settings in windows is that it doesn'
t separate user datafiles from program and system files to start with. at this point in time, the user gets as much or more harassment from security features and programs as from the stuff it is supposed to keep out. this is no wonder, to the untrained eye and innocently gullible mind they will often enough look and behave just alike. the deafening roar of the war between two different sets of commercial interests, "advertising anything" and "security advertising", has become so gruesomely irritating, not to mention prohibitively expensive, it becomes a neccesity for users to find solutions that keep both factions out. allow me to draw a parallel. for nigh two thousand years scores of fine and upstanding countries have fought their wars in my country, each and every one claiming to be our liberator or protector, trampling our Cichorium intybus and Brassica oleracea gemmifera, gorging themselves on our fine cuisine and drinking themselves into a stupor on any of our two hundred plus beers or four hundred plus distilled last line defenses before stumbling back home with anything they considered a fair price for our liberation or protection. now this new sort of war is going to stay out of my computer, whatever it takes. neither side of this conflict is going to get any support or even sympathy from me. their interests have nothing to do with my freedom of choice or my safety from an(other) attack but only with how and where they are going to weasel out the next buck to keep financing this war. I'll pull my data through any crash, virus or attack, fight any limitation or hindrance imposed by either side, just as I would any other invasion of my private life and personal freedom. so let's not frighten new users away from experimenting and exploring, the mistakes they make trying out their own ideas will teach them far more than any advise. me, like most of us, I am a "stupid home user" at heart. I am proud to say that on several occasions I have thought up original and workable solutions for wildly different types of users and (self inflicted) disasters. a new user may need a safety net, but there is no need to take that beyond a good backup and recovery routine he can operate himself. a handful of decent information sites in his favorites, some reassurance as to the quality of his brain functions instead of a prejudicial assumption of stupidity and the general idea that anything can be done, if you just research it properly, should see him improve with leaps and bounds. I have, over the past ten years or so, seen the knowledge the average user has about his OS decline steadily. I firmly believe handing them back the near total access to information and control we enjoyed with win 95 and 98 would reverse that process and should therefore take priority over grossly exagerated safety concerns that may be of paramount importance in a sensitive corporate network environment but in no way, shape or form can be considered of a similar relevancy to the home user.

I agree, but I have never told my Doctor I use the scalpel and you show me where to cut...or told my mechanic, Ill bring the car in but you guide me through replacing the valves, and if I dont know what your talking about Ill just do something else, and blame you for being too slow about fixing it.

patient walks into doc's office, says....

patient: OW,OW,OW
doc:what's wrong?
patient: dunno, just OW
doc: where does it hurt?
patient: "shrugs" dunno, just OW!!!
doc: did you do anything to cause the pain?
patient:ABSOLUTELY NOT! fix it!
doc: guess we can start be figuring out where it hurts, does your head hurt?
patient: "loud sigh" i already checked my head, it's fine!!!
doc: how about your arms?
patient: my arms are fine, I AM NOT AN IDIOT!!!
doc: how about your legs?
patient: um... uh..., might be my leg.
doc: looks like your leg is pretty bruised up
patient: i might have fallen on it, maybe, but i've fallen a hundred times before and it never did this!!
doc: maybe you sprained it, or even broken a bone.
patient: DON"T GET ALL TECHNICAL WITH ME!!! I'M NOT STUPID!!!!!

some bit of knowledge would be nice on the user's part, but not required. but no other subject in the world causes as much defensive behavior or causes as much animosity as a user having to ask for help. we take an inordinant (sp?) amount of garbage just identifying a problem for a defensive user, even if we are polite, apparently it's ok to be rude to techs pre-emptivley, just 'cause there's a good chance they are technosnobs.

edited for typo's, pretty sure i didn't find them all.

It's really sad to see this superiority complex becoming so obvious. At least "Geeks" use to have the courtesy to keep their prejudice some what under the table. Along the same lines as a surgeon, get arrested in Chicago for murder and I'm betting I won't get this attitude when I'm standing next to you at your bond hearing. We won't be telling the judge that I don't know much about computers so he should appoint an inferior lawyer who is a tech wizard. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that you were the ostracized A/V guys in high school. That's when Geek was a bad thing. What goes around comes around.
Dawn

"After 15 minutes before the screen, they think they know it all!" and then they come here to talk about it. :>

I agree, some of us have no business with a computer. That being said, I was probably using one when some of you were in grade school, & was on the net when every site on it was published in a book about an inch thick - most of them were college sites. I once was quite proficient - in dos - lol, & even wrote programs that were still in use by my employer when I retired 11 years ago. It is not that we are especially dumb, it is just that technology moves so fast, & the "old ones" like me just give up & let the "younguns" do it. Now my son builds my computers, installs my new hardware, & keeps everything running smoothly for me. If I have a problem, I call him - or one of you "techno-geeks" to solve it for me - after all, what did we raise you up for - lol.

Using registry utlities to clean or repair a PC's registry. If you are not sure what you are doing, those programs can do more harm then they are worth. Although my PC appears to be working well now, I used a registry repair/cleaner some time ago and it caused a few minor problems like the "blue screen" of death appearing every so often and programs not working well. Again, all is OK now. But there was a time when I thought I may have to re-load the entire XP operating system.

I think it's good for anyone to get an education about any major decision. Manufacturers make it harder when they give less and less instruction when it's now on a CD, on the hard drive, or even at the website. It's hard to blame consumers. This stuff can be more difficult that my law books were. Let's have lessons for potential parents.

... who know what we are doing.

I had to upgrade my laptop on a Sunday afternoon (video "card" died on a 4 year old WinBook) one time.

Turn off wireless side of the router ... check.

Fire up new PC without network connection and make sure firewall is activated ... check.

Install CA Antivirus and latest signatures from disk ... check.

Then and only then put on network.

That is why I have a network port at my desk to the DMZ that I use for setting up new machines. With that I can have a machine relativly protected from the outside and unable to get in to my network and cause any damage. Plus it is a lot easier to get all the updates/drivers/etc. over a network connection. It is a pain to use CD/DVD/USB stick to load updates and drivers.

But the big AV sellers like Symantec and Mcafee are leaning more to selling their software via downloads. So you have to expose your new install to the dangers of the net, just to secure it.

Makes no sense to me. But it's more profit for them.

I never recommend Symantec of McAfee. The other is that they are 0wn3d by the script-kiddies already. I have one charity I work with that has a license for NAV still, but everyone else I work with has switched to CA or AVG.

I also keep a reasonably current copy of AVG on a disk, and this is normally enough to keep a user safe until something better can be installed.

Our local cable company distributes the CA ETrust EZArmor, which cures a world of ills, especially on a compromised NAV installation.

Most people either already decided that they know how to use it or dont need help. A 5 day waiting period is retarded in many ways. I mean c'mon. Do you think that just because they had to wait 5 days that things would change or that they would read/learn about it????
Most users that I deal with are aware of the policies in place. Many just decide 'not' to implement it because it requires a thought going through their brain, or because they have done it differently before.
Its people like this that have kept me employed (and sometimes aggrivated).
I also doubt that a handout with a 'best practices' would help if it came with a system. But, I think that this would be the best way. A red pamphlet theat reads 'IMPORTANT: Things to Know Before Connecting to the Internet". This should go out with every new computer. It will largely be ignored I am sure, but it may be read by some which could help reduce problems.

After reading few comments on this thread, I observed there are a few writers who are critical to "newbies" and older folks who are trying to live in in this computerized and high tech era. I am a 64 years old individual who fortunately is interested in "high tech" or anything that is computerized.
My advice is why don't we, the more knowledgeable individuals share our knowledge instead of demeaning "newbies" and old folks who are trying to leave in this high tech world?
It is a known fact that more people could drive cars more efficiently than using PC's. The explanation is simple, cars been around for many decades and were made more "user friendly" than PC's. Also, you need to learn and pass a driving test before you could drive. The basic reason for the driver's license was to protect others from injury. PC users is not a danger to society. They help the economy and indirectly some people owe their job to them. Let us help them. Give advise instead of criticism.

to anyone who shows the willingness to learn. 30 years has shown that to be the future of a thriving techology. There are very few stupid individuals, jut the uninitiated. Don't criticize, inform and educate.

...it's more to do with the "I know better" attitude of those you try to help. I have no problem helping out someone that is clueless or even scared of the PC they're sat infront of, in fact it's a pleasure to see their little faces light up as they finally gain the understanding they were looking for.

I have no problem helping those who have a clue about most things yet still listen and follow instructions because they can face up to the fact they have holes in their knowledge which I'm trying to fill.

My problem is with the idiots that come looking for help claiming to know everything about everything, usually with a good dose of bad attitude too. You ask them to perform a simple series of tasks, like left-clicking on the "Start" menu and before you know it they've opened up Control Panel and are busy screwing up something else.

At the end of the day it's nothing to do with ability to use a PC, it's the ability to interact with other people in a courteous manner, especially when asking for help. I don't go to the mechanic and tell him/her what should be done or start ripping tools from their hands to do it myself because I know better.

IT suffers in that it's not regarded as a "real" profession, it's just a bunch of geeks "playing" with computers rather than working....

Not a bad idea. New user may be attracted to a "day-glo" orange notice with IMPORTANT on it. Otherwise, the recipient is a DOLT.

YOu must have forgatten how you began, or were you born an "expert"?

What's "forgatten"?

Just a mistype error, but with that kind of name you shouldn't have a hard time decyphering it.

right or left thing. Its called those of us in this profession get VERY irritated at people who screw up their pc's, bring them to us and proceed to tell us how to fix them.

I had one customer do that and I simply turned the pc off, unplugged it, and gave him his tower back and told him "since you know how to fix it, here you go, fix it." A week later his wife called me and asked me to fix it. She apologized for her husbands attitude and asked me to fix the pc.

I have absolutely no problems with novice users, in fact I enjoy showing them what they should and should not do to their pc's, showing them what they can do and how they can be a very beneficial tool in their lives.

After fixing problems and reinstalling windows several times I finally learned that lesson. I now have the kids on a totally seperate PC. It is the way to go. I haven't had to fix my PC or reinstall windows for several years now.

As a tech at a 'Mom-n-Pop' computer store I see this kind of thing all the time. Also, when the
parents are so PC oblivious that they have the
8yr old as the 'computer expert' in the house is
maddening! I'll ask what happened before the PC
crashed and the answer is "like, I was kinda
like on the internet, ya know, Britney Spears,
and like, a pop up, and like more pop ups, and like only a black screen... ya know?" SAD! And
another thing: if I had nickel for all the folks
with CDRW drives that NEVER back up ANYTHING until the PC is so screwed up that it's running
backward, they bring it to me & say "I can't lose
my music and pictures, and I need Word and Excel
saved..." and they don't have install CD's for
any software (Esp. Office). I'll ask "why don't/didn't you put your music/photos on a CD
on a regular schedule" and the answer is invariably "I don't know how to burn a CD" or
"I have a CD Burner???".... ARRRRRGH!!!!!!

We can complain how stupid the endusers are, but at they same
time they have the funds to pay us to correct their problems
which they have created.

Experts in every field have the same complaints. I am sure as
experts, we have done stupid things according to the Mechanic
who repairs our cars. The tax accountant who has to corrects
our taxes.

Bear in mind, without someone out there, who is willing to pay
to fix their blunders, we as experts will not have a job to earn a
living.

All I am saying, we are not experts in everything which we
attempt. In addition, professionals in every area encounters
blunders by the "USERS".

Just my two cents.

Yep, I'm guilty....I download all sorts of stuff....have fun trying out new stuff, especially programs like Apophysis, a neat freeware....but I am SMART enough to know that anything I lose is my fault. But you guys love it when I call you out and pay you $400.00 for 1/2 days work to fix my mistakes...without us idiots you guys couldn't pay your rent!!

I have often ran into a problem where people take their notebooks home and then use it as their home system. Everything from games and downloads, to letting the kids use the system each weekend. These people have been told multiple times that company policy is that it is for company use only.
Worse yet, some people who do this dont report problems (unless they consider it major), because they dont want to get caught again. Several times there have been viri/spyware/malware introduced behind the firewall becuse of this practice. When will some people learn????

For chrissakes, lock it down.

Give them the software that they need. Set the file system according to their needs (eg. C:\TEMP is the only obvious writable area) and job done. No probs, other than if they need software installing then YOU have to do it..... but isn't that how it should be?

rather than having the kids on their own computer screwing everything up, teach the kids proper computer habits from the beginning? Maybe there won't be so many of the kinds of people you IT guys hate dealing with so much.

Hi,

Apart from a lack of backup conformacy there is also the huge issue of information security. one way around would be to disable the drives if they are not used for anything else other tha the backup routine. Secondly make it policy to backup to the networked server. Thirdly if you're on Windows XP make use of the backup facility and schedule it to run at your quietest moments so as not to cramm the network bandwidth

First, a power transient of a very short duration can give jolts to thousands of Volts during few fractions of a second. This is most likely happening when the power quit, not when it comes back: all the inductive motors stop fireing back the magnetic field energy they stored to the lines.
A surge protector may then bring the fault to the ground, to achieve this it must able to respond in few nano seconds (1/1000 th of a million )and be able to handle the max peak energy . The ground must also be of a good conductivity.
Check your AC Outlets some of them are probably not grouded.(I have seen it in my own house)
Now the real good thing to know : A surge or transient protection is only to be used in areas where the ground (soil) as a standard conductivity. This happens in cities (because of all the underground piping ), low ground areas, mud terrain and generally agricultural areas.
It should not be employed where the ground has very low conductivity: sand (Florida is specially prone to low ground conductivity), mountain and elevated rocky places.
Why ? The low ground conductivity of the ground may cause a ground rise potential. Yes the ground potential may rise in those places well above 5000 volts. If a fault or lightning hits near, then the protector would back fire the fault from the ground to the power lines and to the equipment and fry it very bad.

I live on the gulf coast and have worked with telco construction for 30 years.
Some 20 years ago, I noticed APCO on a job site putting ground rods down as far as 100ft. They soon quit that, as even at that depth, they weren't getting a ground in the sand.

Even a chemical GND breaks down over the years. Tho most here don?t use that sort of GND, mainly for good RF work.
But one very good point not mention here with all this GND talk;
When lightning strikes and travels its path through the soil, it super heats the soil around the ground rod turning into glass, limiting or preventing it to work properly in the future. There goes ya ground rod, what?s left is a disconnected GND to the Neutral line, which never gets check.

I have seen a cloud - earth lightning discharge 15 miles away cause transients inequipment.

When a transient occurs from lightning, it usually appears on the neutral and hot side of the power equally. The problem occurs when various parts of your system do not have their grounds bonded together. If the telephone, power, cable, water and building frame are all bonded together, all parts of the system will go up and down in potential together. Thus nothing will be damaged because there is no potential difference between parts of the system.

One proviso...Don't touch anything during the storm. The whole system can go several tens of thousands of volts above ground. You do not want to be between the system and ground!

The first problem with #1 is that modern computer power supplies (anything built after about '92) can handle the same surges that surge protectors handle. In about '92 ZD Labs tested a number of desktop power supplies using the exact same sequence they used to test surge protectors and none of them failed. The most surge sensitive element of a modern computer is the MODEM. Using surge protection on the phone line make sense and probably on the cable line if you use a cable MODEM makes sense as well. If you're going to invest on the power side anything less than a UPS is a waste of money and the price of UPSs is now down to the level of what surge protectors was a few years ago.

By the way, hair dryers, electric heaters and air conditioners are not high voltage devices, they are high current devices.

A. C.

Here in Oz all power points are 'earthed', when we had a ground strike about 100 yds from the house we lost two TVs and two heated towel rails (none off which were turned on at the time),but not the Cable Tv box or VCR (which were on). Everything for the computers (cable,phone,power) goes through surge protecters and was not effected (though turned off).
When I worked on mainframes back in the 60s (Control Data Corp. 3200 & 3300)(I know! Model T Fords we were getting transients at about the same time every day (but not on weekends). Eventually traced it to a ground pulse generated by blasting to excavate foundations for a steel smelter!