Eye Pee See Oh
Last week ago I needed a remote user's IP address so I could remote in. I tried to walk him through getting a command line and running ipconfig. God, it was the most frustrating ten minutes of my recent life. I thought I'd got him to a command line, but trying to walk him through typing i p c o n f i g return seemed beyond him. Go the the start button. The bottom left. The button at the bottom left. Down there. Down! Down! No, the other down. Left. That's it keep going, left. That's it! That's the Windows start button. Clock on it. No, just clock, not double... no! just. Gah. Look, press the WIndows key on the keyboard. Just left of the spacebar, is there a key with a Windows picture on it? Left. LEFT! That's it, now just type cmd, that's short for command, and press return. Have you got a black box that says Windows Command at the top? "Yes". If there a flashing underline? "Yes" Ok, I need you to enter the ipconfig command by typing eye pee see oh en eff eye gee and pressing return. "Ok, done that". What does it say? "Nothing".
We were connected via a Zoom call so I was trying to show him by showing him the actions on my machine, warning him that his would look slightly different. I think at one point he was trying to put the focus in *my* command window. I ended up frustratingly telling him to bring his laptop into the office.
This is why I don't "do" remote support, if I can't see the machine with my eyeballs I can't see what happening. I can't understand this belief that I can see through other people's eyeballs.