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First some back ground history, I do the IT for our family business; after years of the boss (mummy), using and breaking the keyboards on a variety of obsolete kit (Commodore Plus4, C64, Amiga etc), I finally got her to cough up for a proper PC with a replaceable keyboard (she learnt to type on a mechanical keyboard and used to smash the keys through the plastic frames).

Over a few years I managed to cure her of saving everything to the root of C:\, and her odd habit of accidentally clicking on the "Print to file" symbol, then clicking 5,000 times to try and print a document on the printer - everything seemed to be going OK; she learnt how to turn it off properly, but usually used to leave it in standby to save time.

After about 2-3 years of watching, my sister gained the confidence to have a go; and after many hours of experimenting, she could waggle the mouse to wake the PC, click on the desktop shortcut to the Documents folder, and print out OFSTED documents and letters.

Then mummy went on holiday and switched off the PC............

6pm and we are finished for the day, as I am leaving my sister calls out and says she will just run up and print out some documents.........

10:30pm - sis is on the phone and she is steamed, she has been waggling the mouse but the damned computer wont come to life (FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF MOUSE WAGGLING!!!!!!).

me: OK, are you sure it is switched on?

sis: Yes, the little amber light below the screen is on.

me: Thats not the PC, thats the monitor; is the PC switched on??

sis: That IS the PC.......... isnt it??

me: No...... look under the desk....... see that big beige box?? THAT is the PC.

sis: Oh; I wondered what that was for.

Me: OK, is it switched on?

sis: I DONT KNOW!!!

me: Well try pushing the "On" button !!

sis: Which one is that?

me: The big one.

sis: I pushed the top one, still nothing.

Me: Thats the CD tray eject button, look further down.

sis: Ah! found it!!! It works!!!!

The sad thing is, that was back in 2000, and her PC skills havent evolved much since then; she got someone to set up a company webpage 6 years ago, but now has no clue what passwords she set up or how to access it.