Workers' Edge

"I am elated with the results of the Microsoft Automated Troubleshooting Services' Fix it. Have you ever run across this service? After 8+ months without a CD/DVD player—and weekly efforts to remedy the situation—I googled my problem once again and this time came up with a link to MATS.

"After several tries (not compatible with Firefox, open Internet Explorer, won't download, try again later) finally it loaded onto my computer and gave me some options to check off. Within 5 minutes, my CD/DVD was humming again."

Microsoft announced MATS last month. The service requires the PowerShell utility and uses an ActiveX control that it downloads to your system, so as my friend John noted, it works only with Internet Explorer. On the Operations Manager Support Team blog, Microsoft Manageability Knowledge Engineer J.C. Hornbeck outlines the troubleshooting steps MATS takes.

At present, there are only six automatic fixes offered by the service in three categories: "Appearance and personalization," "Hardware and sound," and "Print." You might think that's pretty slim pickings when you consider the range of PC problems, but if your PC's malady has been as thorny as my friend John's balky CD/DVD drive, MATS is worth a try.

Recently, my Vista notebook has been popping up an error message about not finding a Bluetooth driver when it boots. I don't use any Bluetooth devices, so I haven't worried about it. But I thought that was a good enough excuse to take MATS out for a test drive.

It took several minutes for the PowerShell and ActiveX control to download and install, after which I was presented with two options: identify and fix problems automatically, or detect them and let me decide what to fix.

The Microsoft Automated Troubleshooting Services' Fix it feature lets you find and repair Vista problems.

(Credit: Microsoft)

I chose to detect but don't fix because I wasn't convinced there was really a problem. The only thing the scan came up with was the possibility that recent hardware changes hadn't been detected.

Review fixes MATS detects before beginning the repair.

(Credit: Microsoft)

The resulting "Troubleshooting is complete" screen was ambiguous in this instance. It indicated that the issue of hardware changes not being detected was "Detected," according to the "Fix status." I assume that means the issue was detected, not the hardware changes themselves, but I'm not sure.

The result shown in the "Troubleshooting is complete" screen is ambiguous for this test.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Before the troubleshooter closed, it offered three resources for further research into my problem: search Microsoft Answers communities, search Microsoft Help and Support, or open a Microsoft support request, which would send the test results to a "support professional." I chose to leave well enough alone.

MATS gives you three options for further research into your problem before closing.

(Credit: Microsoft)

I wouldn't hazard a guess at the odds of your particular Vista problem being addressed by one of MATS' automatic fixes, but running MATS beats a call to a "support professional" by a country mile.

Last year, I decided to give Linux a try. Everything was going well, until I started working for a company that uses Microsoft Outlook for e-mail. There's simply no straightforward, reliable way to run Outlook on Linux. I tried Outlook Web Access, but the service strips code from HTML attachments, among other limitations.

(The company I worked for prior to my current employer used Lotus Notes, which is probably the only e-mail program in the world more proprietary than Outlook. Organizations must get some huge benefit from using these closed e-mail systems, because they sure make life difficult for users.)

I didn't get far with my Linux experiment, but I'm not giving up on my dream of a simpler PC. I'm ready for the true network computer. Unfortunately, Web apps aren't quite ready for me. More specifically, they're not ready for my boss, though they appear to be getting closer every day.

Do you really need all those programs on your hard drive?
It's downright wasteful to have huge software applications collecting dust on PC hard drives. Take a look at the programs with shortcuts on your Start menu. I bet you haven't opened half of them more than a handful of times in the last year, and a bunch you probably have used but once or not at all.

Adoption of Web-based versions of PC applications has been slowed by the services' limited features and performance compared to that of their desktop counterparts. Also, a dropped Internet link leaves you out in the cold.

Today, online services such as Zoho provide much of the functionality of various desktop apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Zoho also includes an offline component that lets you continue to work without a Web connection. Likewise, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Picasa, Wordpress, and more recently Gmail use Google Gears to allow offline access to your data in those services.

Security of Web-based apps comes up short
Of course, from an IT perspective, the most serious shortcoming of Web-based applications is their perceived lack of security. In particular, Google doesn't let you encrypt the data you store on the company's servers. Zoho's FAQ page states that the company will soon add a data-encryption option. Still, storing the organization's data on somebody else's servers can give system administrators nightmares.

There are still some applications I use regularly that don't have a Web equivalent: Outlook, the TopStyle HTML editor, and the Corel Paint Shop Pro imaging program, among a handful of others. The one thing all three of these programs have in common is that they were selected for me--by my boss.

Personally, I'm ready to go the Web-app-and-Netbook route. And as soon as I can say adios to the monster applications my work seems to require, I'll give the always-online life a try. Wish me luck convincing my employer to join me.

In a comment on my last post, cdotspace asked about how to keep Microsoft Word 2007 from crashing. When I had this problem, I solved it by starting Word with no add-ons, and then enabling the add-ons one at a time until the problem recurred. I removed the troublemaker, which was actually a macro of my own poor devising, and no more crashes.

That got me thinking about how difficult it is to figure out the cause of application crashes. Back in March, I described ways to diagnose applications that won't close properly. But when it comes to finding the source of software problems, look to the Web.

The best software-support sites
Start by getting a free software checkup with the Secunia Personal Software Inspector, which scans your computer and lets you know if there are security updates available for Windows and your applications. PSI is free for home, non-commercial use; Secunia's commercial Network Software Inspector costs $32.83 per seat. Note that PSI and NSI are intended to supplement rather than to replace your antivirus, firewall, and other security software.

Two forums on ExtremeTech include dozens of posts about software problems. Only about one out of 10 posts in the Software and Development forum are specifically on software glitches, but a good number of these include replies with possible solutions. The Windows Help forum is much more focused on solutions to Windows problems.

One of the categories at the Tech Support Guy Forums is Business Applications, though fewer than half of its postings relate specifically to Office apps. The site has a sophisticated search feature that lets you narrow your search by date and number of replies, and it features a search tag cloud similar to Flickr.

Filter your searches at the Tech Support Guy Forums to narrow in on a software solution.

(Credit: Tech Support Guy)

The Office and productivity software forum on CNET also lets you filter your searches by number of responses, date, and even message author. You might need these and other methods to filter your search results on this forum. When I searched "Microsoft Word crash," I got more than 100,000 responses. I knew the program was buggy, but that's ridiculous!

Faster is almost always better, at least when it comes to computers. So what's the fastest way to open a word processor?

You can create a keyboard shortcut to open Notepad, WordPad, Word, or any other word processor on your PC by right-clicking the program's shortcut on the Start menu, choosing Properties > Shortcut > Shortcut key, entering your keystroke combination of choice (be sure not to overwrite one that's already in use), and pressing Enter. I described how to get fast access to all your keyboard shortcuts in a post from last week.

Now press the keystroke combination to open the program, and start typing (or navigate to an existing file you want to open). When you're done working in the file, press Ctrl-S, give the file a name (if it doesn't have one already), choose a location to store it (or accept the program's default storage folder), and press Enter. What could be simpler?

Well, skipping the file-naming and storage location-choosing steps, for one thing. And having access to the notes from any Internet-connected computer, for another.

Web word processors auto-save files
You can create a keyboard shortcut that opens Google Docs or any other Web word processor. Start by opening a new document in the service. Select the URL in the Address bar, and type Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard. Now open Windows Explorer to the Desktop or any other folder, right-click anywhere in the folder, choose New > Shortcut, paste the URL of the service into the location field, press Enter, give the shortcut a name, and press Enter again.

Next, right-click the shortcut you just created, click Properties > Shortcut > Shortcut key, type your preferred keystroke combination for opening the service, and press Enter. Now you can open the service ready to create a new file by pressing that keyboard shortcut.

Unfortunately, if you're not already logged in, you'll have to enter your username and password before you can open the blank file. You can avoid the login step by creating the shortcut to the Writer online word processor that mimics the look of old DOS-based text editors running on a green-phosphor display. (The service's bare-bones look is itself modeled after the free Dark Room word processor, which, in turn, is the Windows version of the WriteRoom word processor for Mac OS X.)

Since Writer doesn't require you to log in--or even to create an account--you need not give your files a name. Just stick with the default, and when you want to reopen the file, select it from your list of documents, which appears just below the text window.

Use the Writer online word processor for instant--and universal-access to your notes.

(Credit: John Watson/BigHugeLabs.com)

Writer remembers your files by leaving a cookie with the identifying information. If you delete the cookie, you lose access to the files, unless you sign up for a free account. The account has the added benefit of providing access to your files from any Internet-connected PC.

Should you find Writer to your liking, be sure to make a donation to its creator to help keep the great services coming.

Monday: get more use out of Windows' taskbar.

We get so used to doing things a certain way, we sometimes miss new techniques that could save us time and trouble. My latest "d'oh!" moment was when I realized, after spending a couple of hours moving files from my office PC to an FTP server so I could sync them with my new laptop, that there's a better and faster way that doesn't cost a nickel: remote access.

A couple of years ago I edited a review of a half dozen remote-access services that link to a PC from any other Internet-connected machine. At the time, the services cost between $10 and $20 a month. Since that time, several companies have released free versions of their remote-access services, one of which is from LogMeIn (formerly 3am Labs). In the midst of my home PC-to-FTP server-to laptop two-step, I recalled the company's free file-transfer service, and I'm glad I did.

That's because when I returned to the site, I discovered that its LogMeIn Pro offering is now available in a free version that includes all of the features of that $13-a-month service during the 30-day trial period; when the trial ends you lose the ability to drag-and-drop files between the PCs, stream sound from the remote system, print remotely, and hold mini-conferences by inviting others to access your remote desktop, among other features.

Signing up for and installing the service takes all of about two minutes: you provide your e-mail address and a password (this is the one you'll use to sign into the service, so make it tough to guess), download and install the control file, follow the link in the confirmation e-mail, and log in. If you use Firefox, you'll be prompted to download a separate file that improves the view of the remote desktop in that browser.

Now you're ready to log into the PC from any other Internet-connected machine. Just browse to LogMeIn.com, log in, and select the remote PC from your list of connections to open the page showing all your connection options.

The LogMeIn console shows all your remote-access options.

Logging into a remote PC via the LogMeIn service is as easy as entering your user name and account password.

From here you can begin a remote session by providing your login name and password for the remote machine, or open the Windows Explorer-like file manager for transferring files between the two systems. Other options on this page let you change your settings, or perform other actions. After you log in remotely, you'll see a toolbar at the top of the browser window, which provides easy access to screen settings for color and resolution, as well as connection options, volume adjustments, the magnifier and laser pointer, and other tools.

LogMeIn's browser toolbar provides one-click access to screen, connection, and other adjustments to the remote session.

Even though I don't think I'll need the mini-meeting, chat, and other features of the Pro version when my 30-day trial period expires, the drag-and-drop file transfers may be the feature that gets me to cough up $13 a month (or $70 for a year) for the Pro service. But I have 29 days to think about it.

Tomorrow: handwriting makes a comeback in Office 2007.