is a reviews editor who manages how-tos and various projects. She’s worked as an editor and writer (and occasional sci-fi author) for more years than she cares to admit to.
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Going home for the holidays isn’t all turkey, holiday decorations, and political arguments discussions. It also comes with requests for tech support and questions like “Why does my computer do this?” and “I read about this AI — what is that?”
Think of it as an opportunity rather than a burden. If you’re like many people, you get tech support calls from frustrated parents or grandparents all year long. This is your chance to make sure things are set up so that, when you do get that call in a month or two, you can more easily fix things — or help your parents fix it themselves.
It’s important to keep computers, phones, and apps updated — but your parents may not have automatic updates turned on, or they may distrust the pleas from their tech to install an update. Here’s how to make sure that their computers and phones are set for automatic updates so that you, and they, don’t have to worry about it.
For a macOS computer
Go to System Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates
Select either Install macOS updates or Install Security Responses and system files to have those install automatically
If you’d prefer to give your parents the choice, you can also select Download new updates when available.
For an iOS device
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