Help setting up Laptops for my teen Daughters

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Last week I ordered 2 refurbished laptops from Best Buy for my 15 and 16 year old daughters. UPS tracking says they should arrive tomorrow. I plan on installing Microsoft Office Professional on both ($9.95 with a discount thru work), McAfee Livesafe and the free version of Malwarebytes.

Should I make myself Administrator or just let it go as is? Any other advise?
 
I also install Teamviewer or the like and make myself an admin so I can assist remotely if needed. You may want to go for a different A/V product over Mcafee.
 
You could be Administrator or have a talk about iffy downloads that the girls may
get into that will render the laptops useless, do they have the judgment to use them
carefully?

Once infected, you'd have to be able to rip out the HDs, put in new ones and totally reload
this can take hours - if you have CDs!

In some cases the motherboard is locked, then they're scrap!
 
mcafee is terrible.

Either go paid with something decent (I prefer eset nod32 Antivirus)
or free.

Malwarebytes is a shadow of its former self..

Also when you are finished setting it up.. do full backups of the hdd/ssd with a good utility such as acronis or macrim reflect.

Then do a second backup after they set it up and install all their junk.. but before they get bad stuff.

I'd avoid installing adobe flashplayer.. if flashplayer is needed chrome has one built in and its more secure.. it also tries to install garbage every time it updates.. which you have to uncheck.

Ditto for Adobe acrobat.. use something else sumatrapdf works great.

ESET codes can be had from ebay on the cheap.(2 pc 2yr $13)
 
Let them administer their own laptops. I mean, they're practically driving age and you'd want them able to change a tire, right? Don't give mapped access to any NAS/shared drives with your personal records, tax returns etc though.

Most laptops have a hidden HD partition with restore abilities anyway. Check this when you get the things. The ghetto way (not done much anymore) is for you to have to feed DVD-Rs for it to burn.

If these girls have phones they might just use the computers for typing for school and not expose them to all that much risk.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
mcafee is terrible.

Either go paid with something decent (I prefer eset nod32 Antivirus)
or free.

Malwarebytes is a shadow of its former self..

Also when you are finished setting it up.. do full backups of the hdd/ssd with a good utility such as acronis or macrim reflect.

Then do a second backup after they set it up and install all their junk.. but before they get bad stuff.

I'd avoid installing adobe flashplayer.. if flashplayer is needed chrome has one built in and its more secure.. it also tries to install garbage every time it updates.. which you have to uncheck.

Ditto for Adobe acrobat.. use something else sumatrapdf works great.

ESET codes can be had from ebay on the cheap.(2 pc 2yr $13)


Are they legitimate codes. We ought to be paying software developer for their work. If you wrote software you would want people to pay you for it.

Maybe people are buying a 5 pc license and selling off a few extra licenses?
 
Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
I also install Teamviewer or the like and make myself an admin so I can assist remotely if needed. You may want to go for a different A/V product over Mcafee.


Is McAfee Livesafe that bad? The only reason I was thinking of putting it on their laptops is because I have a paid subscription good thru June of next year.
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
Once infected, you'd have to be able to rip out the HDs, put in new ones and totally reload
this can take hours - if you have CDs!

In some cases the motherboard is locked, then they're scrap!

What the heck are you talking about?
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Are they legitimate codes. We ought to be paying software developer for their work. If you wrote software you would want people to pay you for it.

Maybe people are buying a 5 pc license and selling off a few extra licenses?
All the ones I have purchased have been legitimate, never used or registered codes. I have bought ESET, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, Avira, and Avast Premium. I am only buying from reputable sellers with tens of thousands of feedbacks.
 
Originally Posted By: BobsArmory
Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
I also install Teamviewer or the like and make myself an admin so I can assist remotely if needed. You may want to go for a different A/V product over Mcafee.


Is McAfee Livesafe that bad? The only reason I was thinking of putting it on their laptops is because I have a paid subscription good thru June of next year.
It is nothing like it once was and tends to be bloated. I would use something else particularly if the machines will be remote most of the time. Check eBay for Avira or Trend Micro, those are usually $5-$10.
 
The above is why my younger kids have Chromebook and Ubuntu on an older laptop that is speed with a SSD. They both are incredibly savvy with Google Docs since school has Chromebook for nearly all students. I don't even care our worry about viruses and malware. Everything installed is within the Chrome ecosystem.

Also I would be leery about using excel and word installed locally unless it saves to a cloud drive. Typically schools seem to adopt Google Docs or Office 365 in cloud way that is typically free to students everywhere. You don't worry about losing work and moving machines as your is available any machine where cloud connection exists. Lastly local install excel and word unless modern version does not allow live collaboration/sharing on documents.
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
You could be Administrator or have a talk about iffy downloads that the girls may
get into that will render the laptops useless, do they have the judgment to use them
carefully?

Once infected, you'd have to be able to rip out the HDs, put in new ones and totally reload
this can take hours - if you have CDs!

In some cases the motherboard is locked, then they're scrap!


What the?

They are heading to college soon and they need to figure things out fast, on their own. You don't want them to call you right before a paper due from a different timezone, they need to figure it out now on their own.

Beside, I've never heard of a motherboard locked and scraped by a virus, you'd hear it on the news all day long if this is the case.
 
Setting up a computer is one of my favorite things!

1. Make yourself an admin if you wish, there's no real need unless you think you'll need access someday and the kids won't give you their password! :)

2. No, McAfee is not "that" bad. Maybe not the best, but better than it used to be. F.W.I.W Eset isn't as good as it used to be either. You probably don't have time now, but if you watch the sales at Newegg & Fry's, (you need to create an account and sign up for emails), and they'll both send you their best sales and specials. Both McAfee & Kaspersky are free after rebate regularly.

3. Teamviewer was mentioned. In my world it's a must have! Even at home, when my wife says, "Larry, could you help me.....", I just open teamviewer on my desktop and log in to hers and help her. I also help many friends and family around the country using it. This program is free for personal use. I think as long as we don't charge for our services we're ok. I'm careful though to not abuse it.

4. Someone else mentioned backups. Do yourself a favor, download Macrium Reflect Free and put it on all your computers. In time you'll love it enough that you'll spend the money to get the paid version, I did. But really, the free version is not at all crippled. This company is head and shoulders above everyone else in this field as far as I'm concerned.

5. Use Macrium Reflect! First to do those clean images, (to include those hidden/restore partions), and then as needed. Example, on my desktop I have it scheduled to do a full backup once a week and a differential every night and let it keep 60 days of backups. That's overkill for many, and won't work for others but even if you just do manuals regularly you're ahead of the game.

If you have an image and a hard drive dies or gets hosed by ransomware or whatever, just do a restore. Then it's just a matter of logistics. You know, figuring out how to accomplish backups and restores between where you are and where they are. If you have Teamviewer & the kids have external drives with backups, no probs. Just log in, do a restore and you're good to go.

6. I recommend that you stay away from Malwarebytes. I was a user for years, then a paid subscriber for years and I've had to to take it off all my computers. It's a real mess, and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon. And no, I don't think there IS anything to substitute for it, sadly. There are some that claim to be....but they aren't.

7. I think those are the biggies. After that it's a thousand and one tweaks & fixes. There's a ton of very good free software out there depending on need. That's where all the fun stuff comes in!

Oh, and do yourself a huge favor and R.T.F.M. on Macrium & Teamviewer. There are some things you can do that can really help you out. For instance, on Teamviewer you can create an account, assign the girls computers to your account, give them distinctive names and see a pop up whenever they're logged in if you have it start with Windows. You can also use the Whitelist/Blacklist. I use the Whitelist mostly, giving only myself permission to log in.

On Macrium, you can add WinPE and then add Boot Recovery Menu Option so that you don't have to boot to recovery disk to do a restore. I only use it when I want to do a restore on mine, rest of the time I leave it off.

Anyway, these are some thoughts.

Good Luck and enjoy!

Larry
 
Dual boot Linux
smile.gif


TeamViewer can be installed on Linux
smile.gif


Not as virus prone as Windows.

As another poster said, use Google Docs. It is great.

Let them be versatile, and not be ruled solely by the claws of Windows.
 
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