Being your family's go-to for tech support used to mean fixing printers and resetting passwords. Now it's about preventing the next crisis before it hits.

• Why it matters: A little upfront tech hygiene saves everyone time, money and group-chat meltdowns.

The Wall Street Journal's Nicole Nguyen recently highlighted some of her top tips — a "Tech Tuneup" — to ensure your nearest and dearest have optimal tech lives. Our favorites:

1. 🔄 Focus on prevention. Turn on automatic updates across phones, laptops, routers and smart home devices. Yes, updates can be annoying. But older OS versions can be a quick path to glitches and security risks.
2. 👀 Make screens easier to use. Bumping up font size, increasing contrast and reducing visual clutter can create a calmer experience, especially for aging eyes. Nguyen takes it a step further for iPhone users who aren't into the new "Liquid Glass." She writes: "Go to Settings > Display & Brightness. Tap on Liquid Glass, then select Tinted."
3. 🛡️ Security is now a family skill. If one password unlocks everything, it's time for an intervention. Set up a password manager, enable two-factor authentication and talk through common scam tactics. Getting phished isn't just annoying; it can be expensive.
4. 🧽 Wipe your digital footprint. Check out Google's free "Results about you" tool, or use apps like DeleteMe and Optery to do a deep dive and delete the data on you that's out there.
5. 📶 Fix the Wi-Fi once and for all. Moving a router, upgrading old equipment or switching to a mesh router can dramatically improve coverage.
6. 🔌 Investigate your phone-charging woes. Perpetually dead phone batteries are the worst. But dusty charging ports, cheap cables and worn-down batteries cause more problems than people realize. Make sure all your basic charging essentials are at their best, so a $10 fix can delay a $1,000 upgrade.
7. ☁️ Backups matter — until it's too late. Photos, documents and contacts should be backed up automatically. Cloud or hard drive, just pick one and make it routine.

💭 Our thought bubble, from Axios' cybersecurity reporter Sam Sabin: Change your mindset. Anyone can be a scammer's next target, not just your parents or the less tech-savvy. Question any offers (text, phone or email) that are too good to be true.

💡 Pro move: Leave behind a simple cheat sheet after you run through these tips with loved ones. Lay out how to restart devices, which apps matter and what not to click.

• Empowerment beats repeat house calls.

WSJ article (gift link) ... Get Axios Future of Cybersecurity.

"The sunshine, the cruise ship, boats in the harbor and the iconic Sydney Opera House made this a gorgeous shot," Sebastian Mei, Axios' senior director of client partnerships, tells us of his recent trip to Sydney, Australia, with his husband.

• Sebastian, based in Milwaukee, took this photo from the Harbour Bridge on an iPhone 16.