Link in event viewer shows nothing in Help and Support Center

[Dave]

I have just noticed that when I click the link "
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp " in event viewer nothing is
displayed when Help and Support opens. IIRC it used to give some further
information that could be useful. Does anyone know how to get back this
functionality?

Thanks

 

[Gerry]

Dave

You may need to be Online and not Offline to get it to work.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Dave]

Dave

You may need to be Online and not Offline to get it to work.

I have an always on high speed cable connection but, in a way, you're right.
But that leads to other questions. Let me explain. I was connected to the
internet at the time but I may not have used the connection for a while.
All I had to do to get the info from Microsoft was to go to any site with my
browser. Then I get the info from Microsoft. This has happened with other
apps I have when I have not used my connection for a while. Outlook Express
gives me an error message that says I'm not currently online and would I
like to try again. The other apps usually give no indication one way or the
other although one of them did say something that indicated it could not
make a connection by itself. What is causing this behavior? Do you have
any idea? Is there a setting I can tweak to fix it? Where would I begin to
look for a solution? Could it have anything to do with my router? Might it
be something with Windows firewall? Why would any app not be able to
inititate a connection on its own?

 

[Gerry]

Dave

Both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express have Work Offline options on
the File menu. They are linked. Thus if you select Work Online in
Outlook Express and double an Internet Explorer shortcut in the Quick
Launch tray then Internet Explorer opens Online. If Outlook Exress is
Offline and I double click the Internet Explorer icon it opens Offline
and says the Web Page is unavailable because I am Offline. This
situation also applies in a similar way to Help and Support. The status
of the programmes ie. Online or Offline is not related to whether there
is an established live internet connection. My broadband internet
conections is always on even when all three computers connected to the
router are swtched off.

In Outlook Express there is a Work Offline option on the File drop down
menu. If ticked it is Offline and if unticked it is Online. If you
select View, Layout, and check Status bar you will get a Work Offline /
Work Online option. If you select View, Layout, Customise Toolbar you
can add or remove an Offline button to or from the Tool bar.

In Internet Explorer there is a Work Offline option on the File drop
down menu. The Status bar has an Offline / Online to enable switching.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Dave]

Dave

Both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express have Work Offline options on
the File menu. They are linked. Thus if you select Work Online in Outlook
Express and double an Internet Explorer shortcut in the Quick Launch tray
then Internet Explorer opens Online. If Outlook Exress is Offline and I
double click the Internet Explorer icon it opens Offline and says the Web
Page is unavailable because I am Offline. This situation also applies in a
similar way to Help and Support. The status of the programmes ie. Online
or Offline is not related to whether there is an established live internet
connection. My broadband internet conections is always on even when all
three computers connected to the router are swtched off.

In Outlook Express there is a Work Offline option on the File drop down
menu. If ticked it is Offline and if unticked it is Online. If you select
View, Layout, and check Status bar you will get a Work Offline / Work
Online option. If you select View, Layout, Customise Toolbar you can add
or remove an Offline button to or from the Tool bar.

In Internet Explorer there is a Work Offline option on the File drop down
menu. The Status bar has an Offline / Online to enable switching.

I am well aware of all that. The only time I ever enable work offline is
when I'm compacting folders in OE. I might do this once a month. The main
problem is still unadressed. What is causing certain programs including
help and support and for that matter OE and certain other non microsoft
programs that I have to not be able to make an internet connection when
opening a browser and surfing works fine and also restores these other
programs to being able to make a conection? Have you ever heard of anytning
like this? By the way, I think that particular OE bug that causes a post to
be sent twice may be related to this situation.

Thanks.

 

[Gerry]

Dave

The meaning of this sentence is rather difficult to figure out. You may
know what you meant to say but I am not getting there.

"What is causing certain programs including
help and support and for that matter OE and certain other non microsoft
programs that I have to not be able to make an internet connection when
opening a browser and surfing works fine and also restores these other
programs to being able to make a conection? "

What browser are you using?

Are you completely up to date with Windows Update?

There was a problem in August with Help and Support but this was fixed
by Microsoft laste in September.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Dave]

Dave

The meaning of this sentence is rather difficult to figure out. You may
know what you meant to say but I am not getting there.

Understandable. I'll try again. Certain programs including OE ,Help and
Support and at least two non-Microsoft programs, one of which I forget
because I don't use it often, and another which I use constantly, will not
make an internet connection without first opening a browser and surfing. OE
gives me an error message about working off line and try again. When I
press try again, it connects and downloads headers. This only happens when
I have not used my connection for perhaps five or ten minutes. I am sure if
I had the prescience to open a browser before trying to download headers or
open a message to download the body, I would not get this error message.
Help and Support and the program that I use constantly (an Internet radio
program), will not connect until I surf. Ther is no error message with
either. This only seems to happen when I have not used my connection for a
while. For instance, when I first turn on my computer sometimes I will do
nothing after I hit my desktop for about 5 minutes. Then I will bring up
the internet radio program and it won't connect. There is no error message.
Just nothing happens when I try to connect. So I bring up IE and verify my
connection and then the radio program will connect. The same thing happens
no matter how long I have been running if I do not use my connection for a
while, I get the same symptoms with OE and the radio program. Help and
Support I only noticed when I first made my original post and I did not
realize at that time that this was the same thing. Because of your original
reply it dawned on me that Help and Support might require my opening IE and
sure enough, once I did that, Help and Support connected. Now, the other
program, which I forget, did give me an error message that said it 'could
not initiate a conncection on its own'. And sure enough, all I needed to do
was open IE and this program connected.

You ask below about what browser I use. I use two, IE6 and Opera. When I
get the symptoms like above, I normally open IE to fix this problem, but
I've confirmed that with the radio program, Opera will do just as well.

"What is causing certain programs including
help and support and for that matter OE and certain other non microsoft
programs that I have to not be able to make an internet connection when
opening a browser and surfing works fine and also restores these other
programs to being able to make a conection? "

What browser are you using?

Are you completely up to date with Windows Update?

No critical updates pending save IE7.

There was a problem in August with Help and Support but this was fixed by
Microsoft laste in September.

And I only noticed the problem with Help and Support on the day of my
original post.

So again, I have confirmed I have four programs that will not connect until
I open a browser. I guess you could quibble with my conclusion about OE. I
remain in a quandry as to what could cause this type of behavior. I have an
easy work around, but it still does not answer that big why question. Any
ideas?

By the way, I opened IE just prior to sending this message to ensure that it
would not get stuck in my inbox. That already happened once today. I am
convinced that this is caused by the same thing that is causing my other
connection problems.

 

[Gerry]

Dave

Your latest message is much more understandable, although you do write
rather long paragraphs <G>.

It is my understanding that Internet Explorer and Outlook Express do
work together. Thus if both are offline and you change Outlook Express
to Online then you will find Internet Explorer has also changed to
Online. That is the reality here. I read Outllook Express offline and
only go online to get new messages. This is different to the way of the
majority of users operate. You can read web pages offline but I only use
Internet Explorer online because to read offline would be far too
restrictive.

Apart from the different ways of reading with Outlook Express there is
another difference between us. You are using Opera as well as Internet
Explorer and my version of Interner Explorer is version 7. Which of the
two you are using is your default browser?

I vaguely recollect that even if a user chooses not to use Internet
Explorer it cannot be removed because Windows needs it to function
properly. My suspicion is that Opera or any other browser cannot replace
Internet Explorer for Event Viewer and Help and Support. If Opera is
your default browser this may explain your "little" problem. Having
never used another browser I have no experience to draw on. I suggest
you need to experiment by switching default browsers back and forth to
see whether this has any affect on the problem you are seeing.

The problem with Help And Support in August and early September was a
fault on the Microsoft end and not a software fault on the users
computer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Dave]

Dave

Your latest message is much more understandable, although you do write
rather long paragraphs <G>.

It is my understanding that Internet Explorer and Outlook Express do work
together. Thus if both are offline and you change Outlook Express to
Online then you will find Internet Explorer has also changed to Online.
That is the reality here. I read Outllook Express offline and only go
online to get new messages. This is different to the way of the majority
of users operate. You can read web pages offline but I only use Internet
Explorer online because to read offline would be far too restrictive.

Apart from the different ways of reading with Outlook Express there is
another difference between us. You are using Opera as well as Internet
Explorer and my version of Interner Explorer is version 7. Which of the
two you are using is your default browser?

I vaguely recollect that even if a user chooses not to use Internet
Explorer it cannot be removed because Windows needs it to function
properly. My suspicion is that Opera or any other browser cannot replace
Internet Explorer for Event Viewer and Help and Support. If Opera is your
default browser this may explain your "little" problem. Having never used
another browser I have no experience to draw on. I suggest you need to
experiment by switching default browsers back and forth to see whether
this has any affect on the problem you are seeing.

Thank you. I think you're right. At least it makes sense to me. Opera is
my default browser. I am aware of the integration of IE into the OS. A
further piece of evidence is my internet radio program uses a Windows Media
Player shell (if that's the correct terminology). The program looks just
like a web page with WMP embedded except in this instance it's embedded into
the application. I think I'll chalk this one up as ''mystery solved".