I spend a significant amount of time each week answering questions that readers of Windows & .NET Magazine and its UPDATE email newsletters send to me. I don't mind attending to this task because these email communications keep me in touch with the problems and situations that readers are facing daily and help me concentrate my research and evaluations on areas that offer the greatest benefit to them. One of the most common statements readers make is, "You've probably never heard of this problem, but I'm hoping you can help." In most cases, I can provide answers or point readers to a helpful resource. Many of the questions I receive are pretty basic or at least seem basic to me. After providing user and reader support for almost 20 years, I've come to realize that IT information is cyclical: Problems I encountered 10 years ago still appear, but the new class of IT professionals is either too young or too new to the industry to have seen them before.

When I help solve more complex problems or problems that are specific to newer technologies, readers often respond with, "How did you know that?" The answer to that question is easy: With very few exceptions, no problem is unique. If you've run into a problem with a standard OS or application, someone likely has experienced the same problem or a similar problem with the same root cause. The questions readers ask me have many recurring themes, and most pertain to a new implementation of a standard product. As upgrade cycles progress, users tend to run into problems that are common to most implementations of a particular product. So, information that the bleeding-edge technology adopters discover a few weeks after new software is released is just as valuable a year or two later, when trailing-edge adopters begin to move to the same (or an upgraded) version of the software.

I'm struck by the fact that the information to answer the questions I receive is usually publicly available, yet almost every request to me contains the phrase, "I've tried everything, but . . . " Yet when I send an answer, I often get a response asking me where I found the data. And for a large percentage of the cases, I found the information on Microsoft's Web site. The tips that follow might be basic for some of you, but if you've struggled to find exactly what you need on the comprehensive site, they will be helpful.

Looking for Answers
Say what you will about Microsoft, the company provides a huge amount of information about its products to end users and systems administrators. The various Microsoft sites can almost always provide answers to questions about Microsoft products.

I often jokingly say that in order to find an answer on the Microsoft site, you need to already know the answer. The situation only seems that way because, whatever the problem is, you must understand what you're looking for to know how to search for it, and knowing the Microsoft name for what you're asking about is really helpful.

Microsoft Product Support Services. The first place to start looking for solutions on the Microsoft sites is the Product Support Services (PSS) home page at http://support.microsoft.com. This site is basically the Web interface to the Knowledge Base. Whenever you encounter an error message, PSS is usually the best place to start looking for information. Readers often tell me that when they search on an actual error message on this site, they discover no useful information. The trick when that happens is to search not just on the error message but also for information about the module generating the error message. Or, do a situational search, such as looking for articles about a particular product's installation or about whatever action was being taken when the error occurred. You can usually narrow your search by checking out the hits you get: Retarget your search by adding or removing words from your search parameters.

TechNet. The next step is to go to Microsoft TechNet at http://microsoft.com/technet. Although the TechNet site links to the PSS site, I don't usually recommend starting a search here—too much information is available from this page. What's most important about TechNet is that cross-product information is available in the TechNet library under the IT Solutions and IT Tasks sections. As often as I suggest it, I can't help but reiterate that all systems administrators can benefit by reading the information available in TechNet before beginning any project. You'll find everything from deployment guides to specific how-to information about Microsoft's products. A visit to this site before you begin your project will give you valuable information and might prevent problems in the future.

Microsoft newsgroups. Possibly the most useful places for accurate, up-to-the-minute information about Microsoft products are the Microsoft newsgroups. These online bulletin boards are fully supported by Microsoft and accurately reflect the problems and solutions that some of the most conscientious Microsoft software users find. On its Web site, Microsoft combines newsgroups into Web browser—accessible areas: for the Product Support Newsgroups area, go to http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.aspx; for the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Newsgroups area for developers, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp; for the newsgroups for IT professionals area, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/newsgroups/default.asp.

You can read the newsgroups online with a Web browser, but I prefer to use a Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) newsreader. If you don't have a favorite newsreader, the NNTP reader that all versions of Microsoft Outlook Express include works just fine. The advantages of using newsreader software rather than a Web browser are a matter of information delivery. With a newsreader, you can subscribe to groups and threads that interest you and have the information downloaded directly to your computer as a background task, which gives you more flexibility in storing and reading the information. The only information you need to provide to use newsreader software is the name of the NNTP server that configures the newsreader software: To access the Microsoft newsgroups, the NNTP server name is news.microsoft.com. These publicly available servers don't require a specific password or username, so you can remain anonymous if you prefer.

I haven't revealed any startling secrets in this article—just some of the key resources I use when trying to solve my own and readers' problems. I find the newsgroups especially useful because their environment is near real time. The newsgroups for more popular or complex products see a tremendous amount of traffic that contains much helpful information. If you aren't making use of these problem-solving resources, you should be. Of course, you're always welcome to ask me for help, too.

End of Article


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Reader Comments

I think you are missing the first and often only answer to many problems. Google. The first step to solving a problem is always document. After documentation step, comes the Google step. First search the web with most specific iteration of error message (use quotes if necessary) and the event id. The second would be to search Google groups would also accomplish your third step more broadly. Having a search interface to the newgroups pretty much eliminates most of the needless browsing through past records. If both of these steps fail, then go to the MS Knowledgebase and attempt to do some fuzzy searches based around permutations and surf through the related links.

I know I am not speaking ground breaking things here, but they seemed to be missing from the original article.

Bowulf- November 05, 2003

This article is very helpful. Especially for Entry level tech's. It frustrating to spend several hours on one problem. But when you are able to figure this problem out, next time it gets easier. Then you become more productive.

Al Chitwood- January 07, 2004

Interesting Article, and I agree with most of it however, I was surprised to see you give the newsgroups such a high rating. I have tried a number of times to use them but usually the response I get is from someone that hasn’t really gone to the trouble to read the post and responds with some VERY elementary platitude that only serves to waste my time. I have often wished that good news groups were available but I haven’t’ found them yet. Keep up the good work

David Toland- March 08, 2004

how to protect control panel setting ,how to set password in windows 98 second edition?

ambadas- April 01, 2004

I agree with Bowulf's post but would like to add the following: If you find Microsoft's search facilities a little cumbersome (I know I do) use Google as you normally would but append 'site:microsoft.com' to the end of your query. This causes Google to only return matches from the Microsoft website.

Andy Mitchell- April 01, 2004

I completely agree if you can't find it through google general or newsgroup searches and the microsoft pages then more than likely you need more specific help on that give product. I also found http://www.eventid.net/ can sometimes give added experience to kb articles and that http://www.sunbelt-software.com/community.cfm is a good community area also.

cmcarthy13- May 06, 2004

WHEN WE GO TO WEBSITES UNDER SOMETHING ELSE WILL THAT STILL COME UP ON THE BILL!

Korea- May 16, 2004

Mark Minasi's site is the best "chat" source I've found (http://x220.minasi.com/forum/). USENET is just full of malcontents or people looking for help on the same stuff.

I've found MS Newsgroups to be just full of problems but no solutions.

A lot of people don't seem to realise they have limited free server product support on an server products they purchased with software assurance.

Finally, themselves warn you to verify their "partners" are what they say they are. And their pay-per-call bottom end service is not a company solution. You're "Exchance is broken" is treatd the same as "How do I cheat in Age of Empires?".

Joe Elway- June 01, 2004

You can also use Google to search Microsoft's Websites.

Example: in the google search box type site:support.microsoft.com "My Error Message"

Rocky- July 07, 2004

Hi,

I need to develop an interface for my foxpro 2.6a application program with CR2's sparrow ATM Software.

The type of communication s LAN through TCPIP or ISO async protocol using single communication protocol.

What I need to know is how to send the message and receive it back and I believe given your knowledge and expertise you will be of great assistance to me.

Thanks.

Ephantas Maina

ephantas- August 07, 2004

Article Rating 5 out of 5

my system having win2000prof.Iam getting syshost.exe error,my system doesnot shutdown

ashokgaurg- September 07, 2004

As alternatives to digging through Microsofts site (which does provide results usually if you dig long enough), I would highly suggest using the Microsoft or Linux special search pages Google offers, they've come in handy. google.com/options/specialsearches.html I use regularly use: www.google.com/microsoft www.google.com/linux

I also find the ability to enter a search in Googles regular search and be able to tab right over to Google groups if I don't readily find an answer.

EventID.net is also a valuble resource for those odd errors in your event viewer you can recieve sometimes, but for their best results you have to get their paid service.

Langly99- October 01, 2004

Article Rating 3 out of 5

Some of these sites have been mentioned already but to stress their usefulness, here are the ones I like using: http://eventid.net/ (great for error msgs!) http://images.google.com/microsoft.html (why search the entire Net when Google can restrict your search to sites dedicated to Microsoft information!) http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/upgradeassistance/onlineconcierge/default.aspx (Live chat with MS but only for Win2003 Upgrade questions) And yes, I read the Win2003 Help. They are getting better and better! Read The Fine Manual!

GWM- October 07, 2004

Article Rating 3 out of 5

I agree with most of the article, but I would use google groups to search the archive of binary NG's going back to the 80's. As David said, problems tend to reappear, and this way you are not restricting yourself only to the MS related groups, when someone in a totally unrelated NG may have the answer to your question(you would not believe the groups I've found some fixes in, heh). The important thing when searching for fixes, as David and some of the posters allude to above, is that in order to obtain and answer, first you must know the what the question is. There is nowhere this is more imperative than in search technologies. If you aren't getting the response you seek, you probably are asking the right one.

Chijin- December 03, 2004

Yeah, indeed there are search engines around to help search for solutions and also help forum of past questions being asked and solution if given. Some are plain lazy to even search for the solutions that they just post their problem(s) and hopes someone answers for them. ;)

Anonymous User- December 03, 2004

Article Rating 3 out of 5

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