Be Wary Of Friendly Laptop Advice

Everybody has that person in their family who is the go-to person for solving all the technical problems, pre-purchase questions, and computer troubleshooting. This is person who comes to the family gatherings equipped with a USB thumb drive filled with all the very best anti-virus programs, spyware searchers, malware detectors, and computer cleaners.

Unfortunately, this type of family computer specialist is usually limited to a single person, but there are 3-4 others who claim to have the same skillet. Keyword = claim. These self-proclaimed computer experts will offer free help to all aunts and uncles willing to believe the uneducated, and possibly made up, computer fantasy stories involving the “expert” fighting off hundreds of “Trojans” and stripping “CPUs” down to the bare chassis just to rebuild them back up in better condition. Word of advice: do not listen to this person!

Spotting these computer nerd imposters can be difficult if you yourself are not the family fix-it computer worker. You may have to live and learn by letting them attempt to fix your computer; it may take 5 fix attempts for you to realize that this person really does not know what they are talking about. Know who the established family specialist is? Ask him or her if your Cousin Fred really does know what they’re talking about, or if those stories about “disarming the ‘Email Stealer’ virus” were fiction.

The key here is to educate yourself. Consider yourself lucky if you have a relative gifted with the ability to successfully diagnose computers, be wary of those who claim to be able to do such just to lose all of your family photos from New Zealand.