Help with navigating the MS web-site

Over the past 3 years whenever a computer problem arises I often visit the Microsoft web-site, the layout of which I find more mysterious and perplexing than its products. There is Microsoft Support and Knowledge Base but I have never located an index page to unravel how or where to find answers to questions. Even its search windows seem highly selective, often returning a ‘no match’ to typical keywords used in Windows. I have seen a page of cryptic keywords suggested by MS itself but using them gained me nothing. Typically when I do find an answer I bookmark the page because I feel I would never ever find it again. Is there an easy method of navigating the site? Is there an index page or does one have to be an extra-terrestial clairvoyant?

Kind regards
Pat (from planet earth)

 

You need to be a clairvoyant. I've bookmarked a lot of MSKB articles and download pages only to find out that Micro$oft has changed the URL. I think this has something to do with increasing traffic for their paid support option.

 

In my last job we used to purchase TechNet, and from that we'd get the knowledge base on CD with a searchable front end and the articles broken down into an ease to navigate tree structure. If your a business user and /or supporting a number of users, subscribing to TechNet can be a good investment.

Nowadays I tend to search Google and Yahoo# and then get to the relevant MS pages indirectly through the results listed there.

Actually there are a lot of subscriber to this group who seem to have a good handle on relevant MS articles, so posting here is always a good idea.


# Yahoo more than Google nowadays. Yahoo tends to be giving me technical articles a lot quick and without me needing to wade through lots of sales liknks

 

Help in navigating the Microsoft web-site

Thankyou Rcerrato, RegieB and PeteC for your replies. At least I can now see that I am not alone, which is perhaps marginally preferable to everyman and particularly his dog only too eager to tell me how easy it is!

Kind regards,
Pat

 

Pat Alley--Yes, by all means use Google (or even Yahoo). At Google if you want to restrict your search to only MS articles, type site:microsoft.com (then space) in front of the subject you are searching for.

 

Or, if it is just support articles you are looking for support.microsoft.com

 

Help in navigating the MS web-site.

Thankyou All for your help and suggestions. However be aware Tony that I wanted to know what the file W9XUNDO.DAT related to. The question could have been phrased a dozen ways so I simply typed W9XUNDO.DAT in the search window.which of course may have triggered several variations of answers. However the reply was a ‘no match found’ which seems to indicate that file name is not mentioned once on the whole web-site whch I find hard to believe. I eventually got the answer from another source!

Kind regards,
Pat

 

They have a special index that is already fairly restricted
http://www.google.com/microsoft.html

The beta MSN search works pretty good too. Searching just for that filename, the first hit is the KB article you were looking for.
http://www.imagine-msn.com/search/en-us/

 

Pat Alley,
Whew! All this time, I thought that the MS site hated me, because looking for answers by keywords in the MSKB never worked well for me, either.

Thanks, everybody, for taking the time to explain what works for you. I like alternatives! One of the things I love about the BBS is that no one is stingy with info, or where they learned it.

Johanna

 

help in navigating the MS web-site

Thankyou All for your input. I had several computer questions to ask particularly about the Windows edition I use so as an exercise I tried all the sources suggested and between them every one was answered. However in deference to Microsoft the site :
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto
was the most consistent although Google was a close runner-up (and of course they had the benefit of being instant answers!)
However the main point is that I now have a permanent copy of all the sources suggested which will prove an invaluable asset for the future, so thankyou all once again.
PS I have used The MS page listed above before (incorrectly) so this time I studied it thoroughly including familiarising myself with all the drop down lists which I feel is important for the beginner in order to avoid elementary errors in it’s use.

Kind regards to you All,
Pat

 

Serves me right for feeling a little smug. I now find that although I can get to the page

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

and I drop the ‘drop down lists’ they are all blank and I am no longer able to type in the windows. Johanna, I think that the MS site hates me too! Maybe its because of my disparaging remarks in my first post on the subject. Is all lost Pete ?

Kind regards,
Pat

 

Pat - it could possibly be your browser security settings. Easy enough to find out. Add support.microsoft.com to your list of trusted sites and see if things improve.

 

The drop down buttons are populated via script. if you have your security clamped down, you will get no nachos.

 

Thankyou Newt and Joe. I reduced security from Medium to Low and added “support.microsoft.com” as a Trusted web-site but to no avail. It seems I occasionally get the correct page which is immediately recognisable by the grey dialogue box. but mostly (about 9 out of 10 times) I get a much brighter page due to a non-existent dialogue box although the now larger 'dialogue box drop down windows' are still in their correct fixed positions on the page, the drop down lists are all blank and the print has increased by a few points making the whole page unuseable.

Regards,
Pat

 

OK. Sounds like there is another underlying problem.

First, when you said you reduced security to medium, if you meant for general internet sites, move it back up. Trusted sites use another group of settings and won't be affected by that.

Next, say what OS version you run since the repair options differ with the various flavors. Also your version of IE.