Staying Safe Online · Updates & Antivirus · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: Uncle Joe's Old Laptop

Help Uncle Joe bring a laptop up to date and keep it safe.

Two years without updates

Your Uncle Joe has an old laptop with Windows 10. He hasn't touched it in two years. Now he wants to use it to read the news and email his grandkids.

He turns it on. It still works, and he is happy. But you remember that no one has updated it in a long time.

Before he goes online and starts browsing, you want to get the newest safety fixes onto it.

He asks where to start. You open the Start menu with him.

Lots of updates waiting

Windows Update finds a long list of updates. They download for a while. Uncle Joe makes a cup of tea.

When it's done, a message says the computer needs to do one more thing to finish. A button appears next to it.

Uncle Joe saves the letter he was typing first.

A loud warning

The next day, Uncle Joe calls you. He clicked a link in the news, and a red page filled the screen. It beeps. It says "Your computer is infected. Call Microsoft Support at 1-888-..." A timer counts down from 5 minutes.

The web address at the top is a jumble of letters, not microsoft.com.

What comes next

Windows Update shows a note. This laptop can't run Windows 11. It also shows a link to enroll in Extended Security Updates.

Uncle Joe can't buy a new laptop this year. He also saw a pop-up for a "PC Shield Pro" app. He asks if he should pay for it.