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Help August 2001 • Vol.7 Issue 8 Page(s) 130-132 in print issue |
Help And Support Make The Most Of Microsoft's Resources | ||
 Windows Me comes complete with a new and improved Help And Support section that's packed full of resources and information. When you need to know how to perform a task or run in to a snag you can't fix, simply open the Start menu and choose Help. Navigating Its Areas The first step to using WinMe's Help And Support is learning your way around the feature. It's pretty straightforward, and once you get the hang of it, we think you'll find it fairly intuitive. If you're familiar with the Internet, WinMe's emphasis on link clicking should already be second nature. Click a topic. Unlike previous versions of Windows, this new Help And Support feature utilizes a plentiful array of clickable links in the form of topics. These underlined text links represent various topics, such as Personalizing Your Computer, Home Networking, and Connecting To And Using The Internet. The topics listed on the Help And Support home page by no means represent all the topics covered. They are merely some of the more popular ones. Here's how it works: If, for example, the Printing, Scanning, and Photos link piques your interest, click it to select it. You are then given another list of subtopic links, such as Working With Printers or Working With Scanners, which are related to the main topic. If you are having trouble setting up your printer, try selecting the Working With Printers link to open yet another list entitled Help & Information. Sure enough, the link topping this list is Setting Up A Printer. Select that link to display step-by-step instructions for setting up printers.
If you see one that looks like it might address your issue, select it to display the help information. You can always return to the Search field and try another keyword if your first query doesn't produce the results you want. Look it up in the Index. Help And Support's thorough Index allows you to search for information using a variation of the keyword method. You'll find a link to the Index under the More Resources section on the Home page, as well as on the blue toolbar that spans the top of the window. Once you're in the Index, use the provided field to enter a keyword relating to your problem or question. For example, if you're wondering how to select wallpaper for your Desktop, simply type wallpaper and watch the Index automatically scroll down to the Wallpaper entry. All you have to do is click the entry to select it and display the information. Sometimes you must further narrow a topic through the Topics Found window. This window lists more specific topics, such as (in the case of wallpaper) Active Desktop Troubleshooter, Installing Desktop Themes, and To Change The Background Of The Desktop. The latter is probably your best bet for finding out how to choose new wallpaper. Just select it and click the Display button to access those instructions. Web-style toolbar. The ever-present blue toolbar houses several different and important links, but the three you'll probably use the most are the Forward arrow, Back arrow, and Home links. To view the previous window, click the Back arrow, and then use the Forward arrow to navigate back to where you were. The Home link, as its name indicates, always directs you back to the Help And Support opening page. Try a different view. The Change Views button appears just above the text window in which the actual help information appears. When you click it, the rest of the Help And Support window disappears, leaving only the smaller text window. This may be useful if you want to view the instructions alongside another open application. It also allows you to maximize the information into a full-screen window for easier reading. Click Change Views once again to reinstate Help And Support. Print the window's content. If you prefer to follow instructions from an actual piece of paper, you'll appreciate the Print button, located alongside Change Views above the text window. Simply click Print to send the displayed topic to your printer. Related topics. If the help information you find doesn't quite answer your question, you might look for a Related Topics link at the end of the segment. Sometimes you have to click Related Topics to see a pop-up menu from which to choose another topic. At other times, each of the related topics already appears as links beneath the Related Topics heading. Recently viewed topics. WinMe's Help And Support feature conveniently recalls the topics you've most recently researched. If you search for information on Outlook Express, go on to look up other things, and then want to revisit the Outlook Express topic, simply open the home page. Beneath the Recently Viewed Help Topics heading, you will find links to the last five topics you've accessed.
Now that you know how to get around using WinMe's Help And Support tool, you may want to familiarize yourself with a few of the operating system's other fine features. And what better way to learn how to use WinMe than through its own tutorials and guides found within Help And Support? Go on tour for tutorials. Tours And Tutorials are the perfect learning tool for those who don't have pressing troubleshooting issues, but simply want to understand a little more about this new Windows environment. Click the Tours And Tutorials button on the blue toolbar, or select View Tours And Tutorials under More Resources on the home page. This opens a window bearing links to more than 20 worthwhile topics. Tours And Tutorials come in several different forms. Some, such as the Windows Millennium Edition Preview, incorporate short video introductions; and others, such as Taking The Internet Explorer Tour, actually link you to information on the Internet. And if, for example, you're not totally comfortable operating a mouse, you'll appreciate the Learning To Use The Mouse tutorial. Here, you'll learn how to move the mouse and use it to interact with objects on-screen. Animated pictures and opportunities to practice mouse maneuvers are also included. The majority of the tours, when selected, simply open the Windows Millennium Edition Tour window displaying text explanations (and appropriate screen shots) of the given topic, along with clickable links to other topics. Learning About The Benefits Of Windows Me, Storing Your Pictures In The My Pictures Folder, and Take The Desktop Tour are only a few of the options you may choose from as you broaden your WinMe horizons. Helpful links. Although nearly all of the home page links under What Would You Like Help With? are quite educational, if the true student of WinMe could choose only one, it would likely be the Using Windows Millennium Edition link. Behind this link are other links to topics, such as Getting Started With Programs and Getting Started With Files And Folders. However, we suggest that you pay special attention to the Getting Things Done online guide and its subsequent links, Learning Windows Me and Using Windows Me. The Learning Windows Me link is especially helpful to those who are not accustomed to some basic Windows tasks, such as manipulating one or more windows, using Desktop icons, or changing the appearance and behavior of the Taskbar. The eight topics and one tutorial (the one about using a mouse) provide an excellent starting point for the Windows novice. Simply click a topic to reveal the information. The Using Windows Me link is a convenient, concise resource for finding out how to accomplish a few of the more advanced tasks. If you've always wanted to create a home network, play music, or use streaming video, check out this section of Help And Support. Of course, you can find information about these tasks elsewhere, but the Using Windows Me section is a likely starting point when you're ready to use WinMe to it fullest potential. Other topics listed here include Playing With Pictures, Playing Games, Connecting Other Equipment To The Computer, and Playing With Home Video. Troubleshooting Inevitably, the day will come when you encounter a WinMe error, glitch, conflict, or bug. When that day comes, you can make Help And Support your first line of defense. Trouble is never fun, but the resources provided here make troubleshooting a little easier. Get your system information. Quite often, troubleshooting a problem requires you to know a thing or two about your system. But if you're like most users, you probably don't know off-hand exactly how much memory you have, how much free space remains on your hard drive, or what kind of CD-ROM drive you use. Help And Support makes it easy to access these and other obscure facts about your system. From the home page, click the Troubleshooting link, and then under Help & Information on the Troubleshooting page, select Getting Your System Information. What opens next is a two-pane window. The categories in the left pane include System Summary, Hardware Resources, Components, Software Environment, Internet Explorer, and Applications. Click the plus (+) sign to the left of a category to reveal and select a subcategory. Expanding Components, for example, and then selecting the Modem subcategory displays all the information about your modem. Choose Advanced from the View menu to access even more details (if you need them), and select Print from the File menu to print a hard copy for easier reading. Online searches for more support. If you've never visited Microsoft's site (http://www.microsoft.com), you may not be aware of the online support available there. Provided you're already connected to the Internet, you can click Search Online Support under More Resources on the Help And Support home page to go directly Microsoft Product Support on the Web. From this site, your best bet is either the Knowledge Base or Frequently Asked Questions (both of which have prominent links). The Knowledge Base contains hundreds of articles about technical support and self-help topics, and each article has its own number. If you already know the number of the article you want to look up, simply enter it and click Go. Otherwise, click the Searchable Knowledge Base link. At the Knowledge Base Search area, you can select a particular Microsoft product to display all the articles related to that product. You may also search for a key word, an article number, a specific driver or downloadable file, or a troubleshooting tool. Additionally, you can type a question or look up new articles posted within a specified number of days. Another likely source is the FAQs section, accessible by clicking the Frequently Asked Questions And Tasks link. Quite possibly, someone has already asked your question, and if so, you'll find the answer here. The FAQs are categorized by product and then by subcategories, such as Common Issues, Instructions/How-Tos, and Troubleshooters. Learn more about using these resources by choosing Troubleshooting from the home page, and then selecting Querying The Microsoft Knowledge Base under Technical Resources. Use the System Restore feature. Sometimes damage is irreparable, and WinMe took that into consideration with its new System Restore feature. With little more than a few clicks, you can automatically restore your system to an earlier, error-free point in time. Select Use System Restore from the Help And Support home page under the Fix A Problem heading. You may then choose to restore your computer to an earlier time or create a restore point of your own. (This may be useful if you're preparing to install a new program, change your Registry settings, or otherwise significantly alter your system.) Either way, simply click Next and follow the on-screen instructions. Assisted Support
For Microsoft support. Click the Microsoft link under Contact Support to submit an online incident report and review Microsoft Support responses. (You must be online to do this.) If you don't already have an MSN (The Microsoft Network), Hotmail, or Passport sign-in name (such as janedoe@msn.com), you'll need to sign up for a free Passport account. The Passport service lets you to use one sign-in name and password across Microsoft.com affiliated sites, and you can store personal data in your Passport sign-in profile so you won't have to retype it. Encryption technologies and strict privacy policies also protect your personal information. Next, you will also need to download the Web Response File Transfer Control when prompted so that Microsoft can gather information about your system. Finally, at the Microsoft Online Assisted Support window, use the drop-down menu to select the problematic product and click Submit. Or, if you've already submitted one, you can view the progress of an incident. If you opt to submit an incident, you will need to select the type of support required (paid or free; it usually depends on how many incidents you've submitted previously), describe your problem, and then give your contact information so that the technician can properly respond. (For more information about how Microsoft charges for support after the first two incidents, see the section titled "Step 4: Call in the professional help" in the "Errors Of The Millennium" article in this issue.) Support Communities to the rescue. The MSN Computing Central Forums and Message Boards found under Support Communities provide ways of connecting with others who may be using the same products and doing the same things as you. Forums help users stay on top of the latest trends and developments on a variety of computing topics, including hardware, software, multimedia, and networking. They also provide links to relevant chats and message boards. If you're especially interested in message boards, you can access them directly by choosing MSN Computing Central Message Boards, selecting a topic (such as Operating Systems Message Boards), and then choosing the appropriate message board (such as Windows Me) from MSN Central Computing. Remember, you need to be connected to the Internet to take advantage of these resources.  On Your Own. These tips are only the beginning when it comes to using WinMe's Help And Support resources. After a little use, you'll develop your own set of tricks. The good news is that regardless of the complexity of your computer-related problem or question, the answer can usually be found with the utmost of ease using WinMe's Help And Support feature.  by Hannah Henry |
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