Holiday Software Ideas for Seniors

When thinking about technology gifts for the seniors on your list, you want to make sure you match the technology with the ability of the person to understand and use it. In many cases, that may mean you need to do some set up before the senior is able to utilize it from there. Here are some ideas for software along with information knowledge level required to setup and use them. Part 2 of this will cover hardware gift ideas.

Software is in most cases for the more experienced user who has a need but may not have thought of filling it before: something that would make their digital life easier. If you do plan to give software as a gift, consider giving a card with the gift and then assisting with the installation yourself to ensure it's working correctly. Alternately, Tech Therapy is happy to assist.

• A good password manager. Ease of use: very easy. Setup: Yes, installation/setup required

It is still amazing to me the number of people who only count on a piece of paper stowed under their keyboard to remind them of their passwords. While this is a great backup if stored somewhere safe, a password manager is a much better alternative to safely and securely storing/retrieving passwords. There are several free alternatives worth considering and setting up. Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, and Macs) have the ability to save passwords and share them across devices via iCloud (see this article on how to do this). Google also has the ability to do this within their Chrome browser (more on this here).

A leading piece of software in this category is LastPass. The beauty of this software is that it works across your devices whether they are Windows or Mac devices, works in web browsers and on smartphone apps. The downside is that there are installation requirements on all of your devices. However once setup is complete, passwords can be accessed from any device and fill autofill when logging into websites

• Backup Software. Ease of use: very easy. Setup: Yes, installation/setup required

If you value anything on any of your computer or laptop, having a backup of that information is a must. The subject of backups is worth an entire blog post itself given all the choices of storing your digital files and photos these days. If you're NOT doing any backup at all, then now is the time to start before an accident, device loss or hardware failure causes you to lose your data. The best backup software works on your computer in the background without you needing to worry about it, but you WILL need to do setup to get it working.

I recommend software which backs up your data to the cloud, thus keeping your data safe if your hime is damaged. Currently, the best value for the money is iDrive, followed closely by Carbonite. Both of these are subscription services: they require a yearly fee to continue to use them. Once the setup is complete (you'll need to set up your account, install software and configure what you want to be backed up), as long your laptop is on and connected to the internet, backups will happen. The initial backup will take time, but incremental backups after that should be quick.