Help! It's Not Just a Beatles Movie: Using Windows XP Help and Support Center
Published: September 24, 2001
By Sharon Crawford, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
Editor's Note: Past articles by members of the online community are archived for your use. The information may become outdated as technology changes. For the most current information, please search the Web site or post a question in the newsgroups.
When Windows 3.0 was released, I was working for a computer book publisher. The development of online Help was greeted with a sort of gloomy acceptance. Many of us thought it augured the end of computer book publishing—after all, who'd buy a book when all the help one needed was right there in the operating system? But like so many predictions, the announcement of the demise of the computer book was premature, because online Help has been, shall we say, limited.
However, Windows Help has steadily improved to the point where the Windows XP Help and Support Center provides nearly exhaustive answers to your queries. Here's how the Help and Support Center works.
Getting Help and Support
Help is approached in the usual way by clicking Start, and then clicking Help and Support. But what opens up is very different from previous versions of Windows Help. The Help and Support Center includes every possible way to approach a problem.
If you think the window in the figure above looks a lot like an Internet Explorer Web page, you're right. The toolbar at the top is much like the one in Internet Explorer, except that the buttons connect you to Help functions, such as the Index of online Help topics.
Know the exact term you need help with? Just type the keyword(s) into the Search box at the upper left of the Help and Support home page, press Enter or click the arrow, and the Search Results page opens. Here the topics with the highest relevance are listed under Suggested Topics, divided into Pick a Task, which provides links to procedures for carrying out the task, or Overviews, Articles and Tutorials, which provides links to these types of help. Also in the Search Results box, you can click Full–text Search Matches for topics that contain possibly less relevant matches to your keyword(s), but do contain references to them within the topic. Often the Microsoft Knowledge Base contains in–depth articles and technical support information relevant to your search. If results are listed under this heading, make sure that you're connected to the Internet, and then click an article listed in the results to go to the Microsoft Web page that contains the article.
If you're not sure of the terminology or can't come up with a keyword, go to a general subject under Pick a Help Topic on the left side of the Help and Support Center home page.
You're Not Alone in Searching for Help
OK, you say, nothing really new here—just a new look to same old Windows Help. Ah, but it's the right side of the Help and Support Center home page that gets interesting. First, there's Ask for Assistance. A link to Remote Assistance is found under this heading, a truly wonderful feature new in Windows XP. If you have a friend or colleague whom you look to for computer help, Remote Assistance can be invaluable (for both of you). For more detail on Remote Assistance, check an earlier column I wrote: Providing Expertise via Remote Assistance.
Next under Ask for Assistance is a link labeled Get support, or find information in Windows XP newsgroups. This leads to a virtual goldmine of information. Click this link and you can choose to go to Microsoft online support where you'll be asked to register and then describe your problem. Under Advanced System Information, you can click links to that take you to views of the hardware and software installed on your computer, error logs, and other information that is needed when you're on the phone with a product support person.
 | I am a major fan of newsgroups because of the detailed, friendly help I've received from true technical wizards. |  | |
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Or you can choose to go to one of the Windows XP newsgroups on the Web where you can leave a message with the details of your problem and someone will answer. I am a major fan of newsgroups because of the detailed, friendly help I've received from true technical wizards. (It's amazing, really. Some very high–priced consultants and developers, who normally charge hundreds of dollars an hour, give out tons of information absolutely free to anyone who asks politely.)
If you're not looking for information, but need to take advantage of services or perform support tasks on your computer, try the links under Pick a Task. Under this heading is an assortment of links to the support you need. Want to turn on Windows Update? Click that link to download any fixes and updates that Microsoft has released since you installed Windows XP. (Charlie Russel's Automatic Updates Fix Compatibility Problems column tells you how updates keep your system current.)
To find hardware and software that works happily with Windows XP and thus avoid any future dyspeptic episodes as mentioned above, select the link to Find compatible hardware and software for Windows XP. This will connect you to the list of compatible products in the Windows Catalog.
If you've installed hardware or software that's given Windows XP a severe case of indigestion, you can return your computer to the happy state it was in before the installation. Just click the System Restore link.
A word of advice: if you haven't created a restore point for System Restore to return to—do so now. Click the System Restore link and follow the instructions to create a restore point. Always update the restore point before installing new hardware, new software, or before messing about in the system. It only takes a minute and can save your ...um... sanity. See the Expert Tip: Create Your Own Restore Points.
The last link under Pick a Task is for Tools—a small word that covers a multitude of functions. Here you'll find connections to most of the other Help sources we've seen on the Help and Support home page, plus links for every conceivable type of assistance including Disk Cleanup, Network Diagnostics (if you're on a network), and the very useful Windows Glossary (for definitions of those mysterious bits of computer jargon).
So online Help has come a long way. Computer books are still being published—I will undoubtedly write a few more myself—but the grim truth for us writers is that at the beginner and intermediate level, users will get comprehensive answers through one of the Help mechanisms in Windows XP. Maybe I should try my hand at romance novels.
Sharon Crawford is a former editor now engaged in writing books and magazine articles. Since 1993, she has written or co-written two dozen books on computer topics. Her books include Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual, Windows 98: No Experience Required, and Windows 2000 Professional for Dummies (with Andy Rathbone).
