Windows 7 : Troubleshooting Software Problems (part 1)

1. Troubleshooting Installation

Essentially, all programs designed for Windows Vista will work with Windows 7. However, not all programs that were designed for Windows XP (or earlier versions of Windows) will work with Windows 7. In fact, you should avoid installing utility and security programs unless they are specifically written for Windows 7 altogether. (Most basic application programs will run fine.)

2. Troubleshooting Programs

Because so many programs are available for Windows, no troubleshooting magic bullets exist that will solve all problems. Every program is unique and every problem is unique.

One of the most common mistakes people make is to not learn to use a program. They guess and hack their way through it, and when things don't work the way they guessed, they think there's something wrong with the program, when in fact, the problem is that the person using the program has no clue how to use it correctly. Troubleshooting can't fix ignorance; only learning can fix that.

You must eventually understand that every program has its own built-in Help for a reason — it's because every program is unique. The only way to get information about a specific program is from the Help that came with that program, or from the support Web site for that program. The Help menu, which is always the last item on the menu bar, provides all the help options available to you.

The whole concept of troubleshooting only applies when you do know how to do something, but things don't work the way the documentation from which you learned said they should work.

Anyway, the big trick is to not just try one resource and then give up. There is no book, Web page, person, place, or thing that has all the answers to all questions, nor the solutions to all problems. Sometimes you really have to dig around for a solution. Start with the narrowest, most simple solution and work your way out from there, as follows.

Try the Help that's available from the program's menu bar.

Then try the program manufacturer's Web site. With Microsoft products, you may want to try searching www.bing.com, http://support.microsoft.com, or http://office.microsoft.com for Office products. At the program manufacturer's Web site, look around for other support options such as FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Troubleshooting, and Discussion Groups or Newsgroups.

For Microsoft products, you'll also want to go to http://support.microsoft.com and click the Select a Product link for links to support for specific products. The Microsoft Public Newsgroups link on that same page will take you to areas for specific products where you can post questions and get answers.

Don't forget, too, that you can search the entire planet using a search engine like Google or Bing. Though, when you're searching the entire planet, you want to use as many exact, descriptive words as possible in your search. Otherwise, you'll get links to more pages than you could visit in a lifetime. Include the product name, version number, and specific words that describe what you're looking for.

When searching the Web, use specific keywords and skip the noise words like "how." For example, if you're looking for help with Windows Live Mail backups, get all of the appropriate words into your search as in Backup Windows Live Mail. To find specific phrases, enclose the phrase in quotes. Be as specific as you can possibly be. The more specific you are when typing your search words, the better your results will be.

NOTE

I confess that I would be lost without Google. When my team experiences a problem with a server for which we don't have a ready fix, invariably the first place we turn is Google. We're not alone in that. The check engine light recently came on in my car, and the service manager told me they searched Google to find the probable cause for the error code that made the light come on.

3. Researching Application Errors

Many software errors will provide hexadecimal memory locations in their error messages. Sometimes, searching for the number won't do any good. The title bar may provide some clues as to exactly what caused the problem. Look through the error messages for some unique keywords that you can enter into different support search engines.

Searching for a combination of the program name and keywords from the error message text can sometimes provide clues. You may want to start with a narrow search, such as http://support.microsoft.com to avoid getting too many hits. If that doesn't work, you can broaden the search to all of Microsoft.com (www.bing.com). If all else fails, you can search all five billion (or so) pages in Google's index at www.google.com.

But the key thing, in all searches, is to get the most unique words from the message into your search string. For example, if searching for the hexadecimal memory addresses from the error message doesn't return useful results, you could try a combination of other words. If you keep getting results that are clearly not germane, such as pages about UNIX system problems when you're searching for a Windows issue, preface with a minus sign the keyword you want exclude. For example, searching Google using Windows 7 backup restore –UNIX -Linux will return hits for pages that contain the words Windows, 7, backup, and restore, but not pages that also include the words UNIX or Linux.

Ideally, you'll want to try to dig up as much information about the error as you can via the Web. Search the company's Web site; because they are the ones who created that application, they may be able to provide additional information.

4. Troubleshooting Tips

I've been troubleshooting computer problems of one kind or another for a quarter of a century (yes that makes me feel old). In that time, I've learned one important fact that will help ensure success over failure: You must be methodical.

Don't start changing program settings, Windows settings, registry settings, deleting files, and taking other action without an understanding of what you're doing. Just as important, don't make lots of changes at once. Instead, make a single change, see if it fixes the problem, and then try the next if needed.

Here are some key pieces of advice:

• When searching the Web for answers, be as precise as possible. Include as many keywords as possible that are related to the issue. If you are receiving an error message, enclose the exact error message in quotes in your search.

• Ask yourself what has changed. Did you add something new? Did you change a setting? Knowing when the problem started occurring and what changes happened right before it could give you a great head start on finding the solution.

• Make one change at a time, testing the problem after each change to see if it is resolved.

• Keep notes. As you make a change or test something, make a note of it so you'll know what you changed and when.

• Don't be surprised to find that what appears to be a single problem could actually be multiple problems.

• Use restore points to restore your system to the state it was in just prior to when the problem started occurring.

• Make backups of your critical data before you make any drastic changes.

• Make backup copies of the registry key in which you are about to make changes before you make those changes.