Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Sometimes the best resource for information about Microsoft products is, in fact, Microsoft's own support site.
Microsoft Support, sometimes known as The Knowledgebase, is one of the most overlooked resources on the internet for users of Microsoft software. There's a ton of information out here that addresses hundreds of thousands of issues from the simple, to the complex to the obscure.
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One of the problems with the Microsoft's Support site is that there's so much information, it can sometimes be difficult to find exactly what you're looking for. But be patient and hone your searching skills. The support site has recently switched to using Bing as it's internal search engine, but if you're more comfortable you can use Google to search by including "site:support.microsoft.com" in your Google query.
One of the other issues that people occasionally have with the support articles is understanding the terminology and assumptions occasionally made. Even so, given the fact that much of the deeper information has been written and maintained by perhaps thousands of engineers at Microsoft over the years, even with its warts it's amazingly coherent.
Sometimes my job is simply interpreting, or finding what's already in the Microsoft Support Knowledgebase. You'll note that my answers will often include a link to a Knowledgebase article. I turn to it frequently for issues with Microsoft products.
In fact, I should turn to it more often.
I recommend it.
Article C2464 - November 18, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
As a follow-up comment, typing "reformat" in that Bing powered search engine also gives a suggested sub-topic of "reformat windows xp professional" which is pretty much what I was looking for. Click on that link and the first suggested KB article is "How to use Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP." Once again, the MS search engine brings up a totally useless article. And that was my original point. As long as Microsoft makes it darn near impossible for people to find what they need, people will turn to third party sites (like Ask Leo.)
Posted by: Mary at June 23, 2009 10:23 AMi cant open microsoft web page because its saying the page cannot be display and my internt is connected. I am using maxis broadband service. So how can prevent this problem..
Posted by: joel at August 6, 2009 10:08 PMMost of my information seeking on Microsoft sites is related to how to use various controls in Visual Basic. In this I have been frequently disappointed to where MS is now the last place I go. Microsoft technical writers would explain a beach by giving a detailed description of each individual grain of sand. Simple examples are rare and control information is spread across dozens of pages resulting in a Zork-like (you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike) browsing experience.
Posted by: Jim de Graff at April 11, 2010 12:24 PMI have windows 7, but it is in russian. Is there a step by step? I tried to do it but cant translate into russian. Please help!
Posted by: ollie at February 26, 2011 11:22 AMThe use Bing has improved the site usability. Overall. their site has proven to be of minimal help for me (imho). I will still use the site because I get lucky once in a while. Many times I find what I searched for, in fact the exact problem, only to find too many posts left unanswered. But it has improved.
Posted by: GREG JACKSON at September 5, 2011 3:38 PM