Cleaning the Computer

The Grumpy IT Guy recently had a post in his A - To - Z Challenge about people using their work computers and letting their kids install what amounts to spyware, malware, and viruses while trying to play games and what not. That particular rant is here.

It put me in mind of an episode, now several years in the past, when one of my kids had landed on a nice, innocent-looking game on the internet that he wanted to play, and asked his grandmother to help him out. Granny is one those people who seems to prefer to not think about what she's doing. Sometimes I think that her seeming inability to think things through MUST be a joke or some kind of gambit, like how some people pretend to be inept so that you don't ask them to do anything.

That said, she's always there to try to do something in the name of helping you. Good heart. Loony as a football bat, but a very good heart.

In this case, in trying to help, she kept pushing the "yes" button without actually reading what the dialog box said (not that it would have mattered, malware makers don't exactly practice truth in advertising).

It took me three or four days to clean that dang computer up.

Why did she keep hitting "yes"? Well, because that's what the IT guy at work told her to do.

The IT guy at work told her to keep hitting "yes", I'm sure, while he remotely rolled out a legitimate software package update. When you're downloading something from the internet, this is NOT the best policy!

I know very few people for whom I cringe when they come to help...