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Windows XP: Working with the Help and Support Centre

Need a helping hand? No problem – guidance is just two clicks away, writes Dave Cook.

A problem shared is a problem halved, or so the saying goes. But what happens if your computer has a problem, or you’re in desperate need of information?

You could ask a friendly expert, of course. The like of which can be found in any Practical PC chat session, held each Monday at 9:00 pm. But if you’re prepared to go it alone, you could launch a new feature called the Help and Support Centre.

What It Offers

Besides a host of online tutorials and reference material, the Help and Support Centre offers a wide range of resources for Windows users of every level of experience - from the novice to the seasoned pro.

These resources will depend to some extent on which Windows XP edition is being used. The following, for instance, are just some of the features integrated into the Windows XP Professional Help and Support Centre.

·          Most powerful Windows search engine to date

·          Troubleshooting help, covering a vast array of common and not so common problems

·          Links to Windows Update, utilities such as the Disk Defragmenter, and important system tools as in Network Diagnostics and MSCONFIG.EXE

·          Help in setting up Remote Assistance

·          Information and syntax on 175 command-line options

·          Access to Group Policy and other advanced system information

·          Links to the external Microsoft Knowledge Base, as well as other useful sources

·          Links that help you undo changes, or keep up to date with your system’s current configuration

Use It Or Lose It

The Help and Support Centre can be opened in a trice. Simply open the Start menu, and then (surprise, surprise) click the Help and Support shortcut. Once opened, you’ll notice that the left-hand column lists the most common Help topics, while the two groups of links in the right-hand column – Ask For Assistance and Pick A Task - are a quick way of accessing various tools and resources.

The Help and Support Centre also includes a Did You Know? section. This helpful feature is provided by Microsoft support and can be updated every day. Vendors can also customise this section. So if your copy of Windows XP was pre-installed, you might find links here to a vendor’s support site.

That said, it’s not just vendors that are able to customise the Help and Support Centre. Click the Options button on the toolbar and then click Select search options. From here, you can choose to narrow or widen the scope of your searches, or you can adjust the number of entries returned by a search from its default value of 15 (results per provider) to virtually anything you wish.

Wizardly Wizards

Few operating systems or applications these days fail to offer a smattering of user-friendly wizards, and Windows XP is certainly no exception. In fact, it provides over two dozen. That’s more than any other Microsoft operating system to date. But where are they hiding?

Well, with the Help and Support Centre open, you can easily obtain a quick overview of most of them. Simply click the Index button in the toolbar, type wizard in the keyword window, and Windows XP will point you straight to the Wizard group of topics. Make your selection, such as adding network places, for example, click Display, and then (typically) click one of the links contained in the documentation. This action launches the selected wizard, and helps you accomplish whatever it is that needs doing.

Finally

No matter how experienced you are with computers, there is always something to be gleaned from the Help and Support Centre. Indeed, some of the tools available from this feature are so useful that, in the weeks to come, we’ll be covering them in much closer detail.

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