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Tech Support for the Holidays: Assisting Your Parents with Technology

Published

3 months ago

November 27, 2025

How to help your parents with their tech over the holidays

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.

Make sure everything is updated

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.

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.

Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates.

If you toggle on Automatically Install, it will install software and system updates as they’re available. Toggle it off, and software updates and system files will Automatically Download but need to be installed manually. You can also choose Automatically Install for just system files.

For a Windows 11 computer

Select the Start menu and choose Settings.

If you don’t immediately see Windows Update, type it in the search box.

Toggle the box on that reads Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available.

You can also go to Advanced options if you want your parents to get updates for any other Microsoft products, have the system notify them when a restart is required, or choose the hours when the computer is active (so they won’t be surprised by a sudden restart).

Most system updates will occur automatically — but not always. To check to see if the system has updated on a Pixel (or many other Android phones), go to Settings > System > Software updates. You can also check for App updates here.

If you want your parents’ apps to update automatically, open the Play Store app, select the personal icon in the upper right corner, then go to Settings > Network preferences > Auto-update apps. You may want to stick with Update over Wi-Fi only.

The process is similar for Samsung phones. If you’re using the Galaxy Store, go to Settings > Auto update apps and select Using Wi-Fi only.

One of the most frightening things for many adult children is the thought that their elderly relatives may be vulnerable to the many scams circulating. Calls from “Microsoft” about a virus that was “detected,” or from the “IRS” about a tax debt that is about to trigger an arrest, or from a bank that needs their help foiling a con game — they are still out there. (Just the other day, a friend told me that her mother got a call that she believed was from her bank and that instructed her to withdraw her entire account and put it on a gift card. Luckily, an alert bank teller prevented a disaster.)

There are a variety of resources available to educate yourself and your parents about avoiding becoming a victim of fraud — and what to do if it happens. One resource for older adults is the AARP Scams & Fraud page, which has a number of resources for older adults and their children, such as a weekday phone helpline, an article about holiday-related scams, and specific examples of people who were hit by various types of cons.