Lesson 2:?Troubleshooting Using Help and Support Center

Microsoft has greatly enhanced and improved the Help and Support Center in Windows XP Professional. This lesson acquaints you with the features available in Help and Support Center.

After this lesson you will be able to

• Identify the features in and use the Windows XP Professional Help and Support Center

Estimated lesson time: 15 minutes

Assisted Support

Windows XP Professional now includes two Assisted Support services-Microsoft Incident Submission and Management and Windows Newsgroups-which help users resolve computer support issues.

Microsoft Incident Submission and Management

The Microsoft Incident Submission and Management feature allows you to submit electronic support incidents to Microsoft, collaborate with support engineers, and manage submitted incidents. For example, if you are having problems installing drivers for new hardware on your computer, you can launch Help and Support to submit an electronic incident report to Microsoft.

To access Help and Support follow these steps:

1. Click Start.
2. Click Help And Support.

   Windows XP Professional displays the Help And Support Center window, as shown in Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6??Help And Support Center window

Windows Newsgroups

Windows Newsgroups provide valuable information to help you resolve computer support issues in a free, online setting. You can use the connectionless message boards and the real-time chat rooms to get answers quickly without submitting incident reports to a Microsoft or OEM support organization. The goal of this feature is to promote Windows and MSN Community offerings in Windows XP Professional Help and Support, as well as to encourage users to add or extend this service in their own communities.

To access the Windows Newsgroups follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Help And Support.
2. In the Help And Support Center window, under Get Assistance, click Get Support Or Find Information In Windows XP Newsgroups.

Compatible Hardware and Software

The Compatible Hardware and Software feature provides up-to-date, comprehensive, user-friendly hardware and software compatibility information to aid users in upgrading equipment, making purchasing decisions, and troubleshooting problems. For example, if you purchase an application that requires a 3-D accelerator card, you might not know which cards are compatible with your computer. You can use Help and Support to run a comprehensive query and find compatible 3-D accelerator cards. You can run queries based on manufacturer, product type, software, or hardware. The Microsoft compatibility teams use data from user interactions, independent hardware vendors (IHVs), and ISVs to improve their products.

To access the Compatible Hardware and Software feature follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Help And Support.
2. In the Help And Support Center window, under Pick A Task, click Find Compatible Hardware And Software For Windows XP.

Device Driver Referral Site

The Device Driver Referral Site helps you install device drivers that are not included with Windows XP Professional or on a disk with the device. When such a device is connected, Windows XP Professional starts Help and Support Center and asks the user to send device information to Microsoft. After uploading the information, Help and Support Center offers additional information, including the following:

• A search for compatible devices, which can include product status, downloadable updates, and drivers available at third-party Web sites
• A list of compatible devices
• Knowledge Base articles related to the device in question
  The Microsoft Knowledge Base is a comprehensive database containing detailed articles with technical information about Microsoft products, fix lists, documentation errors, and answers to commonly asked technical support questions. To access Knowledge Base, connect to the following address: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/support/search.asp
• Additional Help topics related to finding and installing devices
• A method to submit and manage incidents escalated to Microsoft Product Support Services

Full-Text Search

The Windows Help system uses HTML to format and display information. If you have an Internet connection, you can search for every occurrence of a word or phrase across all Windows compiled HTML Help files. Because the Windows Help System is also extensible, multiple search engines can plug into the Help and Support Center application using a set of standard interfaces. Users can search for content across multiple remote and online providers. For example, you can search for information resident on your computer or located remotely in the Microsoft Knowledge Base or in a participating OEM's knowledge base.

To access Full Text Search follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Help And Support.
2. In the Help And Support Center window, in the Search box, type in the text you want to find.
3. To control how the search will be performed, click Set Search Options (see Figure 1.7).
   

   Figure 1.7??Help And Support Center Set Search Options window

My Computer Information

My Computer Information provides an easily understood, highly accessible view of personalized software and hardware information about your computer or another computer for which you have administrative permissions.

To access My Computer Information follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Help And Support.
2. In the Help And Support Center window, under Pick A Task, click Use Tools To View Your Computer Information And Diagnose Problems.
3. Under Tools, click My Computer Information.

You can view information in five categories, as described in the following sections.

View General System Information about This Computer

The My Computer Information - General category allows you to view information about your computer such as the computer manufacturer, model, basic input/output system (BIOS) version, processor version and speed, operating system, amount of memory, and amount of available disk space.

View the Status of My System Hardware and Software

The My Computer Information - Status category allows you to examine diagnostic information about your computer, including the following:

• Obsolete applications and device drivers
• System software
• Hardware: video card, network card, sound card, and universal serial bus (USB) controller
• Hard disks
• Random access memory (RAM)

Find Information about the Hardware Installed on This Computer

The Computer Information - Hardware category allows you to examine descriptive information about your computer's hardware including the local disk, display, video card, modem, sound card, USB controller, network cards, CD-ROM drives, floppy drives, memory, and printers.

View a List of Microsoft Software Installed on This Computer

The Software category allows you to view a list of Microsoft products that are installed and registered by a product identification (PID) number on your computer, including products that run automatically from Startup. It also shows you Windows Watson Crash Information about any software that crashed while running on your computer.

View Advanced System Information

Advanced System Information allows you to choose from the following options:

• View Detailed System Information (MSINFO32.EXE). This option allows you to view detailed information on hardware resources, components (multimedia, input, network, ports, and storage), software environment, and Internet settings, as shown in Figure 1.8.
  

  Figure 1.8??The System Information window
• View Running Services.
• View Group Policy Settings Applied.
• View The Error Log.
• View Information For Another Computer. If you have administrative permissions on a remote computer, you can view My Computer Information on that remote computer. If you click View Computer Information On Another Computer, the Web Page dialog box appears prompting you to enter the name of the remote computer you want to view. Enter the remote computer name and then click Open to view the remote computer information.

Multiple Instances

You can open two sessions of the Help and Support Center application at the same time. Running concurrent sessions enables you to submit incident reports while looking at Help or System Information.

Printing

The Help and Support Center application allows you to print an entire chapter of Help content with one print command; that is, it can iteratively print all available topics in a specified node. If some topics are not available because of network connection problems, Windows XP Professional prints only the available content. After you have located the information you want to print, click Print (see Figure 1.9).

Figure 1.9??The Help And Support Center Print option

Remote Assistance

The Remote Assistance feature allows you to remotely view and control a computer for any support task. It also enables chat and file transfers. If you have a computer problem, you can invite another person (a remote assistant) to help you over the Internet. The remote assistant can accept your invitation, chat with you about the problem, and view your desktop. The remote assistant can also transfer any files required to fix the problem. With your permission, the remote assistant can also get full control of your computer to perform any complex steps needed to fix the problem.

Lesson Review

The following questions will help you determine whether you have learned enough to move on to the next lesson. If you have difficulty answering these questions, review the material in this lesson before beginning the next lesson. The answers for these questions are in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers."

1. How can Windows XP Professional help you in making a recommendation about how to upgrade the equipment in your office?
2. If you are talking with a support engineer about a problem you are having with your computer and the engineer asks you for the BIOS level on your computer, how can you use Help and Support Center to find this information?
3. If you have administrative responsibility for your company's workgroup and have administrative control over all computers in the workgroup, how can you easily determine the model and driver for each network adapter in the workgroup?

Lesson Summary

• Assisted Support allows you to submit electronic support incidents to Microsoft, collaborate with support engineers, and manage submitted incidents.
• Windows Newsgroups are valuable facilities available to you to get information and resolve computer-related support issues in a free, online setting.
• The Compatible Hardware and Software feature provides up-to-date, comprehensive, user-friendly hardware and software compatibility information to aid users in upgrading, making purchasing decisions, and troubleshooting support issues.
• My Computer Information provides you with an easy-to-comprehend, accessible view of personalized software and hardware information specific to your computer or to remote computers on your network.