First, a relevant musical interlude:

You might recall that recently I purchased a new computer. Transitions like that are not my forte. It takes some time for me to get familiar with a new system, and I often find it very frustrating for a while.

This go-round was no different. I’ll spare you the details. Let’s just say that during the process I got to know a few members of the local Geek Squad.

And no, please don’t tell me to get a Mac. Been there, done that, kept it for four years and never got used to it. My new computer is a Lenovo PC and it required me to register with Microsoft, something my old Lenovo PC (circa 2012) never made me do. Progress.

It seemed that the registration would be a fairly easy task. But no, it wasn’t. For some unknown reason, when I was signing up, Microsoft was eager to know about the minor child in my home. I don’t have a minor child in my home. But it would not let me take that option. It insisted on knowing said child’s name and age. And so finally I made one up. That couldn’t hurt, right?

Big mistake. Microsoft would not let me register after that as an adult. It assumed there was an adult in the home, and I was the child, and that I needed that adult’s permission to do anything with that computer.

So off I went back to the Geek Squad, although the nice young man who helped me was somewhat stumped by the whole thing. But he kept trying different approaches and finally, somehow, he came up with a solution and made another account for an adult, which he very creatively named “test.” However, for some reason I no longer remember, I would be forced to use the child account and not the adult one whenever I worked on the computer. It seemed to me that would be okay. And at first, after I took it home and turned it on, it was.

But then, after an hour or so of work, it cut me off and informed me that as a minor child I had to get my parent’s permission to use it any longer than that. Okay, I could fix that, right? But when I signed in as the adult, this is the little note I got from Microsoft.

Hi test,
Jean wants more screen time on PC today.
How much extra time would you like to give them?
15 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
8 hours
Custom time
I don’t want to give more time today

Jean asked on June 3 at 9:28 AM. The screen time you allow can be used on any PC they use. We sent this request to all adults in the family. If nobody responds, the current screen time schedule stays in effect.

To learn more, visit https://account.microsoft.com/family

Microsoft respects your privacy. To learn more, read our privacy and cookies statement.

Nice to know.

Note that it does not give the option of letting child “Jean” have unlimited time on the computer, although the choice “custom time” seemed promising. And that’s how I finally solved the problem, allowing little Jean to be on the computer as much as she likes.

So everything I’ve been doing on this new computer since June 3 has been with my pretend parent’s permission.