Video calls for senior center

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I am a computer instructor at a local senior activities club. I would like to establish a video call software (such as Skype, Zoom, Teams) on one of the six public Windows 10 computers. My goal is to encourage seniors to keep in contact with their family and friends using this program.

Which program would be most senior friendly and easy to use?

Can any of them be setup for multiple users that can delete their information after each use. How can I setup the system?

I want to insure each person’s privacy, while allow them to a video call platform,

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Richard M. Spring

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Hands down Zoom.  Zoom offers 45 minutes (if I recall correctly) free calls.

Teams/Skype no way.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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It seems you would need each person to have a Zoom login so their calls / contacts remain private.
Persuading them to logout after they finish is another matter…

cheers, Paul

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Thank you Susan and Paul.

Yes, my major concern is protecting their private information.

Does Zoom have any setting to delete info upon closing and is there any way to create a macro to

Accomplish the same.  I want them to use it, but safety first.

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I’ve never played with either of these, but have you considered something like

Reboot Restore Rx

Reboot Restore Rx prevents any changes made on your drive(s) by restoring a saved baseline every time the PC boots up.

It is designed for small public access computing environments such as classrooms, libraries, kiosks, and internet cafes.

Even when users download files, viruses, malware, or even try to delete registry keys, Reboot Restore Rx will restore the PC back to your desired state.
https://horizondatasys.com/reboot-restore-rx-freeware/

or Deep Freeze
https://www.faronics.com/products/deep-freeze/standard

 

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While discussing this issue with a friend, he suggested WhatsApp as a possible solution.

Although WhatsApp is mainly smartphone app it can also be used on a PC.  You do need a open

Cellphone WhatsApp app, then open http://www.WhatApp.com on your PC.  A provided QR code will sync the two together.

This maybe a little advanced for some of my students.  Any thought on using this idea?

Richard M. Spring

 

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I have used Deep Freeze and it is very good. Restore RX free would be worth trailing.

cheers, Paul

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If Dad and Mom and Kids have facetime, that would also be easier.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy

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Best option if you want privacy is not use WINDOWS. Windows is very tel-spy-ware filled.

 

Use linux system and set up a portable IRC client on USB that they plug in. If they forget their USB, linux has a IRC client installed and they log in. After it ends, wipe linux back to original.

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Will the person on the other end also have Linux and a USB flash drive set up in a similar manner?  I don’t think so.

 

(eons ago in nntp we’d remind answerers – remember what the original poster asked for – easy video chat solution – not extreme geeky manner of communication)

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Everyone has WhatsApp with video calls.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Everyone has WhatsApp with video calls.

Not everyone is technically savvy.

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Everyone has WhatsApp with video calls.

I don’t.

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geekdom

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Will the person on the other end also have Linux and a USB flash drive set up in a similar manner?  I don’t think so.

 

(eons ago in nntp we’d remind answerers – remember what the original poster asked for – easy video chat solution – not extreme geeky manner of communication)

 

Susan Bradley wrote:

Will the person on the other end also have Linux and a USB flash drive set up in a similar manner?

The poster said that will :

WSRSpring wrote:

My goal is to encourage seniors to keep in contact with their family and friends using this program.

It does not matter what the other end has. This computer will be in senior center. The easy and save way is to have USB. This is my opinion. There was no asking about the other end. If it was from 1st user to other end user, it might have had made a different recommendation like a two  person program that are safer since not going thru server.

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Also since it will be on USB on portable app, they will not need to remember a password. This is a benefit for seniors that are not tech savvy. They will remember to take USB with them as a key to the senior’s home. The USB can be password protect as well if the senior has forgettable memory.

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Remember the original question – video calls between two people.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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If you have Win10 Pro or Enterprise, you could set up a VM, have it open your communication program of choice when it starts via normal Windows options, and have a Powershell script run at shutdown to revert to a checkpoint. The revert process would get rid of everything in the last session. Your users would have to know how to log in to the communications platform. You could have Windows 10 in the VM login automatically.

You can experiment on any PC where you can run Hyper-V before setting up the PC at the senior center. You could also use another virtual machine of your choice although you’d have to find another way to script the revert.

 

--Joe

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geekdom wrote:

Alex5723 wrote:

Everyone has WhatsApp with video calls.

Not everyone is technically savvy.

There is nothing that needs to be technically savvy more than any other video call app.

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