Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

Thank you for this very important reminder. Everyone has to learn this at some point, and will necessarily start from a position of relative ignorance; the fact that someone hasn't learned it yet doesn't mean that he or she is stupid, and it's wrong to treat it as such. (Not to say that anyone here, particularly the poster, has said or even thinks this; but it's easy to fall into that mindset, at least for me.)

0) Deny them admin rights to the machine. 1) Create a second profile for each of them 2) Write a quick batch or PowerShell script to copy the contents of their Desktop, Documents, Favorites, Pictures, Music, and Vidoes folders (not the entire profile) from their profile to the second profile you created for each of them. Make sure your script only copies new or changed items (so it runs faster) Store this script outside of either profile. 3) Schedule the script to run every hour on the hour. 4) In the event that they brick their profile with adware, malware, etc, simply login as an administrator, delete the first profile, rename the second profile to whatever the first one was called and then create a backup profile with the same username that the previous backup profile had (so you don't have to edit your script).

Notes: For your script if you are more comfortable with batch scripting then use "Robocopy". If you are more comfortable with PowerShell use "copy-item". I cannot stress enough how important it is that you ONLY copy the folders I mentioned above. If you get lazy and copy the entire profile you will bring over the folders viruses, adware, and malware hide in (like AppData). For the love of God make sure you have up to date antivirus on the machine. That's so basic that I didn't mention it above but I feel compelled to do so here. If you don't want to spend money just install Security Essentials or AVG.

I installed Ubuntu LTS on my mom's. If it weren't for the SSH connection that always calls a server I have and I can use it to log back to her computer, I would have to get a sister to drive there in order to walk me through what she's seeing.

With the SSH tunnel, I can just SSH to her computer through my server and fix almost everything.