A new laptop for an old lady

[iisjman07]

Heya everyone, I thought I might wrack your brains for a few minutes. My nan is retiring in a couple of weeks, and as such is ditching her old celeron based xp desktop with a 56kbps modem (thank god!) and wants to get a laptop and broadband as well so she can surf the web and use things like FriendsReunited + Facebook. She does know how to use a computer, as she uses a corporate machine at work and the desktop at home for word processing. The duty of setting up the laptop will not doubt fall on my shoulders, so I've started to think about the setup. What I plan to do is:

-Run OpenDNS as to block porn, adware/malware, and phishing (one of my main concerns)
-Create an admin user and use Windows SteadyState to block off things like Control Panel, Run, Regedit, as well as blocking all foreign executables, on her account so she doesn't muck the system up , I'll also set the computer to autologon to her user and auto connect to wifi
-Disable UAC as I think she would be confused by it, and install *some* antivirus
-Install TeamViewer for remote support, which runs silently on her pc with a saved password, so it can be accessed without her doing anything
-Increase the font size so it'll be easier to read and rename desktop items from eg, 'firefox' to 'internet'

I was just wondering, what else do you think I should do, am I being too strict? Which antivirus do you think I should install (preferably one with password protection)?

 

[atlanticjim]

I like OpenDNS for blocking but it will redirect any searches from the IE or Firefox address line searches to the OpenDNS search engine. Therefore use Google Chrome for the browser (more stable as well).
SteadyState is probably overkill, she will most likely never get into the control panel options unless you send her there.
Disable UAC, but if this is a new machine you might get her into Win7.
TeamViewer is a great idea (I do that with my in-laws).
As far as fishing goes, use AVG Free (I know that I am going to get some flames for this, because of their recent problems). It is free and it does have a phishing blocker and link scanner.

You may want to include OpenOffice as well.

*BTW: instead of double posting (this one and the one about the AV) you could have edited the first one to include that question . . IMHO)

 

[iisjman07]

Thanks for the answer, I'll consider everything you said...

 

[thor999]

For the small amount of tasks she would generally be using the laptop for, I strongly feel you should check into Linux; a little more work, yes, but if stability and security are your goals, Linux is your bag.

 

[NickCat11]

For the small amount of tasks she would generally be using the laptop for, I strongly feel you should check into Linux; a little more work, yes, but if stability and security are your goals, Linux is your bag.

I agree linux would work but it seems like she is already used to a Windows environment. Switching her to linux may cause confusion. iisjman, it sounds like you have a pretty good setup there. If she screws that up, well, she could just call you to fix it

 

[iisjman07]

For the small amount of tasks she would generally be using the laptop for, I strongly feel you should check into Linux; a little more work, yes, but if stability and security are your goals, Linux is your bag.

I have dabbled in linux before and there are some very nice distros for beginners, but as NickCat11 stated, turning to linux would definitely cause some confusion.

 

[Tweak]

Could restrict with group policy the areas you want to keep her out of, setup some type of intrusion detection to lessen the likelihood of infection, from a recent post from I think Dr. Micro, something like that, install Sunbelt Software Vipre, obviously Firefox (I still prefer Opera) with whatever addons you feel are needed. Renaming the icons is a good idea and removing unneeded would help. Although not a child you could actually install free web filtering software usually used for kids...but in this case it'd help and has a password option too. http://www.k9webprotection.com/

 

[JosephLeo]

Install Ubuntu- then get XpGnome to make it look like Windows XP.

This will grant a guaranteed virus-free computer and will work on literally any hardware. The only concern I have is if your "customer" enjoys poker. I think you might have to check if WINE can run her favorite poker programs.

ALSO I would change firefox's icon to internet explorer, install NO SCRIPT and Ad Block Plus as well as a decent firewall.

 

[Doctor Micro]

While I have nothing against your proposed setup, with the exception of your antivirus choice (I hate that AVG has turned into bloated nagware), perhaps you're being a teensy bit too overprotective of your Nan. If she's been running XP at home (even though it was on dial-up) and probably uses XP at work, she's no rank beginner, though I don't presume to know her PC skills better than you.

I agree with the other posters that you should at least consider Windows 7.

 

[iisjman07]

While I have nothing against your proposed setup, with the exception of your antivirus choice (I hate that AVG has turned into bloated nagware), perhaps you're being a teensy bit too overprotective of your Nan. If she's been running XP at home (even though it was on dial-up) and probably uses XP at work, she's no rank beginner, though I don't presume to know her PC skills better than you.

Yeah, you're right. I'm considering lowering the protection as in the last couple of years her only problem with her computer was a motherboard failure... I think I'll stick avast! on there, because it has that funky boot-time scanner thing as well as password protection.