IS there a " Dummies" book on how to use the Microsoft KB site?

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Guest

I'm returning to tech work after some years away. I'll do desktop and a
little server support/network support

Just wondered if there is a good " How To" guide on tricks and tips about
researching problems, errors, KB articles, etc available on the MS website?
It's so changed and so huge now since I left tech work in 2003.

A field tech is heavily reliant on fishing out the correct White Paper or KB
article to fit the need. I need shortcuts, tips, tricks, hints, etc.

TIA

Dixon H Harris, MCSE
respond also to (e-mail address removed)
 
Just wondered if there is a good " How To" guide on tricks and tips about
researching problems, errors, KB articles, etc available on the MS website?
It's so changed and so huge now since I left tech work in 2003.
Click to expand...

I don't recall *ever* finding anything via a direct search
of MS. The How-to guide is at www.google.com :)

Also note: MSDN2 seems to have been deliberately made
incompatible with non-IE browsers. (See the IE-only-bracketted
CSS code near the top of any MSDN2 page.) To solve that
problem if you use Firefox it's necessary to go to View ->
Style -> No Style.
 
Dixon H Harris said:
Just wondered if there is a good " How To" guide on tricks and tips about
researching problems, errors, KB articles, etc available on the MS
website?
It's so changed and so huge now since I left tech work in 2003.
A field tech is heavily reliant on fishing out the correct White Paper or
KB
article to fit the need. I need shortcuts, tips, tricks, hints, etc.
Click to expand...

Hi Dixon,

My 2 cents, as one involved in corporate IT support for the last, uh, well
20 years, really ...

I get the best results from Google! Even when searching the KB, MSDN or
Technet. In a Google query, add a "site:microsoft.com" to restrict the
results to pages on microsoft.com - this includes KB, TechNet, MSDN, and the
general microsoft.com site. If you want to search just the KB, use
"site:support.microsoft.com".

The KB's own search tool has improved greatly in the last few years, but it
is still somewhat behind what you can find with Google, for most things. But
if Google doesn't return the goods, go to
http://support.microsoft.com/search. Also, check out the catalogue of
keywords:

How to query the Microsoft Knowledge Base by using keywords and query
words
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=242450

Getting a subscription to TechNet or MSDN generally seems worthwhile - at
least, I have a MSDN Universal subscription, and find it absolutely
invaluable for support work. But I'm probably working a bit more on the
developer side, than on infrastructure side, so your mileage may vary. MSDN
is better value than TechNet, IMHO.

The other *essential* support tool, which has arisen in recent years, is
Virtualisation - you absolutely must run some kind of virtualisation
platform, be it Microsoft Virtual PC, Virtual Server, or EMC's VMWare. There
are various pros and cons ... for an all-Microsoft environment, Virtual
Server or PC are very good, and certainly cheapest (ie, free). This way, you
can have virtual machines configured and on standby, with all the main
platforms and applications you need to support. So doing any kind of repro
is as easy as firing up a VM, and trying it out. It has transformed my
entire life. Since virtualisation products became readily available I have
better health, I see more of my family, and I take fewer drugs.

Good luck with it,
 
Hi Dixon--

There is an MSKB or two on how to use them. Here's my best advice:

1) Get the key words in as short using as few as possible.
2) Sometimes using How To helps.
3) Searching with the pulldown on the correct software helps sometimes and
sometimes it doesn't.
4) Often using Google to search the situation helps because Google searches
the MSKBs better than MSFT search or Live Search does. Adding the term
Microsoft Knowledge base may help at times using Google.

How to query the Microsoft Knowledge Base by using keywords and query words
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/242450

Good luck,

CH
 
Andrew McLaren said:
Hi Dixon,

My 2 cents, as one involved in corporate IT support for the last, uh, well
20 years, really ...

I get the best results from Google! Even when searching the KB, MSDN or
Technet. In a Google query, add a "site:microsoft.com" to restrict the
results to pages on microsoft.com - this includes KB, TechNet, MSDN, and
the general microsoft.com site. If you want to search just the KB, use
"site:support.microsoft.com".

The KB's own search tool has improved greatly in the last few years, but
it is still somewhat behind what you can find with Google, for most
things. But if Google doesn't return the goods, go to
http://support.microsoft.com/search. Also, check out the catalogue of
keywords:

How to query the Microsoft Knowledge Base by using keywords and query
words
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=242450

Getting a subscription to TechNet or MSDN generally seems worthwhile - at
least, I have a MSDN Universal subscription, and find it absolutely
invaluable for support work. But I'm probably working a bit more on the
developer side, than on infrastructure side, so your mileage may vary.
MSDN is better value than TechNet, IMHO.

The other *essential* support tool, which has arisen in recent years, is
Virtualisation - you absolutely must run some kind of virtualisation
platform, be it Microsoft Virtual PC, Virtual Server, or EMC's VMWare.
There are various pros and cons ... for an all-Microsoft environment,
Virtual Server or PC are very good, and certainly cheapest (ie, free).
This way, you can have virtual machines configured and on standby, with
all the main platforms and applications you need to support. So doing any
kind of repro is as easy as firing up a VM, and trying it out. It has
transformed my entire life. Since virtualisation products became readily
available I have better health, I see more of my family, and I take fewer
drugs.

Good luck with it,
Click to expand...


Andrew,

Fully concur on the Google advise. I had an MS employee pass that same
advise on to me a couple of years ago and have stuck with it ever since.
Yeah, the MS KB search has improved... but Google's still better.

As to Virtualization.... oh, yeah, baby! I couldn't do my job without it. I
work from home in GA. VPN in to our lab in San Diego. We have VMWare's
Virtual Infrastructure set up... so I'm using VM's remotely. Very cool. And,
while I agree that VPC is a pretty cool tool, and its price is right,
VMWare's snapshots are far, far, better than VPC's anemic attempt at
offering the same capability. Not even close, imho. That said,
virtualization ROCKS!

Regards,

Lang
 
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