'idiots' Guide To Downloading In General?

[joko]

my sister, brother, sil, and mum have all had problems with downloading stuff

they all seem to end up with all sorts of crap on their machines, and probably viruses etc - yet obviously they want to download all sorts of stuff like films, programs, music etc - some of it free stuff and some from places like piratebay etc.

and because, in their eyes, i am the family computer 'boffin', i can fix anything they do wrong - that is their general attitude.

obviously i am vastly more computer savvy than them - but i can't fix everything, and frankly don't want to have to go round and try all the time because they don't bother to learn anything.

but obviously, I want to help them so is there a guide somewhere online that i can send them to refer to?


something that explains stuff like not to just click ok ok ok, and to customise the install so you don't get crappy toolbars and trial stuff add (my SIL had managed to get no less than 12 toolbars on her machine!)
and general stuff to understand what things mean etc.
also how to delete stuff that has installed itself etc.
how to choose where to put the downloads etc, what torrents are etc

cheers

[sandyRoe]

There's no such thing as a free lunch. And I don't think there's many free downloads from the likes of Piratebay that come without problems.

[humbersloop]

this might help

http://www.wikihow.com/Download-Safely

and agree with sandy - have you thought about using the parental control setting?

[ST24]

A lot of software just requires you to pay attention while installing so that you don't end up with toolbars or different search engines etc.
Another tactic is to find good cleanup tools ; for that I recommend you direct your relatives to majorgeeks.com

[factor-fiction]

I tunes never gives me any problems

[joko]

i dont want to restrict them - they are all adults and free to do what they want - i just want to show them how to do it properly

i download tonnes of stuff from all sorts of sites and never have any problems, because i do it properly

[joko]

thanks also for the links, i will check those out.