Ever heard the saying “If all else fails, read the instructions”? It’s sarcastic, of course. But it’s also somewhat profound, because it touches on our natural desire for immediate gratification. Believe me, when it comes to wanting and expecting immediate gratification, I’m as guilty as the next person. Unfortunately, there really are no instructions for using a computer. If there were, they would be bigger than the Encyclopedia Britannica probably big enough to fill a decent-sized public library. Truth is, there are so many things you can do with a computer and such a huge volume of information is available, there really is no single source of information to which you can turn. To survive in the digital world these days, you have to be resourceful. And being resourceful means having enough skills to find the information you need, when you need it, wherever that information might be. But being resourceful isn’t a skill anyone is born with. You have to learn to be resourceful. And that’s what this article is all about.

Introducing Help and Support

By far, the most important resource for getting the information you need, when you need it, is the Help and Support built into Windows Vista. It doesn’t cover everything in great depth. But it does cover all the main features with a focus on things most people want to do with their computers. If you don’t see a Help and Support option on your Start menu, don’t panic. Some computer manufacturers replace that with their own Help or Support option. Clicking that option will take you to a help page that’s similar to the Vista help page. It’s just rearranged to promote your computer manufacturer. If you don’t see Help and Support on your Start menu, it might also just be turned off. You can probably turn it back on. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties. In the dialog box that opens, click the Customize button. Then scroll down through the list of options and check Help. Click OK in each open dialog box. The Help and Support Center provides access to all help features. Right off the bat you can see that it’s divided into six main categories, each represented by an icon in the top half of the window. Click any one of those items to see what’s available. You can also click any blue text for help with that specific topic. For beginners and casual users, Windows Basics is the best place to start, especially when you need reminders of key terms and concepts that the rest of Help assumes that you already know. That includes terms like hardware, software, point, click, double-click, right-click, drag, function keys, navigation keys, keyboard shortcuts, menu, command, desktop, icon, taskbar, Quick Launch, Sidebar, program, window, document, minimize, maximize, restore, scroll bar, open, save, close, undo, file, folder, move, copy, delete, and print. For folks who already have all those terms and concepts down pat, the What’s New? icon might be the better place to start.

Navigating Help

Across the top of the Help and Support Center (On your own screen, you can point to any button to see its name.) Here’s what each button offers:

- Back: Takes you back to the help page you just left (if any). Disabled (dimmed) when there’s no page to go back to.

- Forward: Returns to the page you just backed out of. Disabled if you didn’t just back out of a page.

- Help and Support Home: Takes you to the same page that opens when you first open Help and Support.

- Print: Lets you print whatever help information you’re currently viewing.

- Browse Help: Takes you to the Table of Contents.

- Ask: Takes you to options for getting online help from humans. (But there isn’t anyone just sitting there waiting to answer your questions. It’s more complicated than that.)

- Options: Provides the following options:

- Print: Same as clicking the Print button.

- Browse Help: Same as clicking the Browse Help button. -

Text Size: Changes the size of the text in the help window. (A life saver if the text is too small to read!)

- Find (on this page): Searches the current help page (only) for a word or phrase you specify.

- Settings: Provides options for enabling or disabling online help and participation in Help Experience Improvement program.

As always, you can point to any button across the top of the Help and Support Center to see its name.

Using the Search box

The Search box at the top of the Help and Support Center window is strictly for searching Help. It searches both the help that’s in your computer and the more extensive online help (if you’re online when you use the Search box). Use the Search box as you would the index at the back of a book. It works best if you know the exact term you’re looking for and know how to spell that term. But even if you don’t know how to spell it exactly, it works pretty well. For example, a search for “desk top” (wrong spelling) returns roughly the same results as “desktop” (correct spelling). You can also phrase your search as a question. For example, “What is a user account?” or “How do I create a user account?” Press Enter or click the Magnifying glass button after typing your search term or question. The results will be a series of links to pages in Help that are relevant to your search phrase or question.

Online Help and Offline Help

There are really two types of help in Windows Vista. There’s offline Help, which you can access at any time. There’s also online Help, which you can access only when you’re connected to the Internet. The online help is more extensive than the offline help. In the Help window’s lower-right corner, you’ll see an indicator that tells you which help you’re currently Accessing. Click that to choose to use Offline Help (only), or Online Help (which includes both offline help and online help). To automatically include online Help in your searches, choose Settings and then choose Include Windows Online Help and Support when you search for help.

Vista’s Help Is Only About Vista

It’s important to understand that the Help and Support in Vista is only for Vista and the programs that come with Windows Vista. There are at least 100,000 other programs you can purchase separately. Vista’s Help and Support doesn’t cover any of those programs. When you want help with some program other than Vista, you have to look in the Help for that program, not Vista’s help. Typically, you do so by choosing Help from that program’s menu bar or by pressing F1 while that program is open and in the active window. E-mail is the same way. E-mail isn’t really a component of Windows Vista. E-mail is a service provided by your ISP (Internet service provider) or a third party like Google for Google Mail or Yahoo! for Yahoo! Mail. Your ISP or mail service provider are your best resource for questions about e-mail.

Help from People

When we can’t figure something out by guessing, usually our next thought is to call someone on the phone. Whether or not that works depends on whom you call. Many of the larger companies charge for telephone support, and it can be quite expensive, especially if you don’t know all the terminology. When you don’t know the terminology, it’s hard to ask the question and even harder to understand the answer. There are some online alternatives to using the phone where you can get help from an actual living, breathing person without spending a fortune. Clicking the Ask button in the Help and Support Center shows what they are. The sections to follow describe what each option is about.

Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance is a technology that allows another person to see what’s on your computer screen and operate your computer with their mouse and keyboard. The idea here is to turn control of your computer over to a trusted expert to resolve your problem. Unfortunately, you have to provide your own trusted expert. There aren’t any companies (that I know of) that have trusted experts willing to hook into your computer and fix things for free.

Windows Communities

Windows Communities are newsgroups in which other users hang out, ask questions, and answer questions. Nobody gets paid to work on newsgroups. It’s all done voluntarily. So there’s no charge to access the newsgroups. Newsgroups aren’t an immediate gratification type of help. There isn’t anyone there waiting for your questions and ready to answer on the spot. It’s more like group e-mail where people post messages and other people reply as convenient. This is another resource you can add to your list of resources for information. To get to the newsgroups, first make sure that your computer is online. Then click the Ask button in Help and Support and click Windows Communities. Your Web browser opens to the home page for the communities. I can’t say exactly how it will look because it’s a Web page, and Web pages change all the time.

Microsoft Customer Support

Clicking the Microsoft Customer Support link takes you to a Web page that provides still more support options. There, you’ll find a ton of links to different kinds of support for different kinds of questions. Take a look at all of your options and decide what’s best for you.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting isn’t easy with computers. It’s a skill that takes a lot of time, education, and experience. But you can use some resources to troubleshoot some of the more common problems without being a total computer geek. First, it’s important to understand that troubleshooting only comes into play when you already know how to do something, but things don’t work as they should. It’s not the same as not knowing how to do something or not being able to figure out how to do something by guessing. It’s an important distinction to make because if you can’t do something because you don’t know how, troubleshooting won’t help. As to nongeek troubleshooting, there are many resources for that. The first is Vista’s automated troubleshooting. Vista can often recognize when something’s gone wrong. When it does, it may pop up a message asking whether it’s okay to send information about the problem to Microsoft. You should always choose Yes. No human will receive the message. Nobody will call or pop up on your screen to solve the problem. Instead, another computer will check to see whether it’s a known problem that’s already been solved. If there is an available solution, you’ll (eventually) see a message in your Notification area offering to solve the problem. Just click that message and follow any additional instructions that appear on the screen. Hopefully, the problem will go away without having to call in the pricey computer nerds.

There’s also the Troubleshooting link in the Help and Support Center. Click that to find solutions to common problems. I’ve also included a troubleshooting article at the end of each part of this book. Like the Troubleshooting icon in Help and Support, it only covers some of the more common problems. There isn’t a book in the world that’s large enough to cover every possibility. Finally, the communities mentioned in the previous section can be a great resource. Just make sure that you explain exactly what the problem is so people reading your post can determine what’s happening. Chances are someone who reads your message has already encountered that problem and will offer a solution. Hey, it’s free. So it’s certainly worth a try.

Finding the information you need, when you need it, is a big part of using a computer these days. A single resource, like a book, computer course, the built-in Help, communities, the Web, and so on, isn’t really enough. The field is much too big now. To survive in the digital world, you need access to many resources. This article has been about the different resources available to you. To summarize: - Windows Help and Support is one of your best resources for information about Windows Vista. - There are three ways to get to help, which you surely want to memorize: Press the Help key (F1) on your keyboard. Or click a Help button (blue circle with question mark). Or click the Start button and choose Help and Support. - Most programs that aren’t built into Windows Vista have their own help. To get to that help, you typically press the Help key (F1) or choose Help from that program’s menu bar. - If pressing the F1 key has no effect, tap the F Lock (or Function Lock) key on your keyboard, and then press the F1 key again. - Windows Communities are a resource for free help from live human beings. - You need to invest a little time in learning to use the communities. They’re not an instant gratification thing. But the time you spend will be well worth it.