If I were to vote for the most underutilized support resource, I'd have to cast my vote to newsgroups. Part of their underutilization is many people don't know they exist. Some people shy away from newsgroups because they think they require additional software. We'll explain these online resources in general and show you several ways to access and search Microsoft's support newsgroups. (Includes online tutorial.)

Benefits of Newsgroups

Newsgroups are a type of online community built around a specific interest. The interest could be a software package or a music group. Since their inception in 1979, the number of newsgroups has grown to over 100,000. Since support issues are a hot topic with the release of the SP2 patch, we thought we'd provide two ways to access the Microsoft Windows XP newsgroups.

Like many community resources, newsgroups are often overlooked. This is unfortunate as they can be a valuable troubleshooting resource. A good newsgroup offers the following benefits:

1. 1. Available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.
   2. Free
   3. You can post can be read and answered by countless people.

How to Access Support Newsgroups

Microsoft has created newsgroups to help users with issues about their products. Between all their products, they offer over 1700 newsgroups that are also included in Usenet. These newsgroups can be great for researching problems when traditional sources such as FAQs, Google, friends and other methods fail to answer your question. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a dedicated newsreader to access these newsgroups.

Method 1: Microsoft's web-based newsreader

The advantage to this web based reader is it only displays Microsoft Windows XP newsgroups and other core newsgroups. The reader splits the browser window into three sections. The far left section (TOC pane) lists the available newsgroups. The middle section (Thread pane) lists the recent posts for the newsgroup. The far right section (Message pane) displays the highlighted post.

Toward the top of the newsreader, Microsoft has added a search toolbar that allows you to search for messages. You can also refine the results by limiting the search to a specific newsgroup such as Windows XP Hardware.

Several other features are provided with the Microsoft reader to make it easier to find messages. Like many active newsgroups, it can be difficult to find threads or discussions of interest. Threads are linked messages on the same topic. They are identified by a small + to the left of the title. To help the reader, Microsoft has added filters and icons so you can find "answered questions" and "threads with helpful posts". The last choice is based on viewers marking a post as helpful.

Microsoft also allows you to sign into communities via a .Net passport account. The main advantage is you can get email notifications when people have posted to a specific discussion. This is a nice feature if you don't want to spend the time returning to the newsgroup to see if someone responded to your post.

The company also recognizes that newsgroup postings can generate spam and offers various ways to protect your email address including generating a false email address.

Method 2 – Google Groups

Although Google excels as a search engine, we find it's not the best reader for viewing newsgroups. The navigation is more cumbersome than Microsoft's reader and the posts can be several hours behind for Microsoft newsgroups. However, it makes up for this shortcoming with advanced search features that can hone in on an issue. These search features can be extremely helpful if you're not sure which newsgroup to search, or if your problem involves a third party product.

Google Groups also has excellent retention for Usenet newsgroups. Usenet is the largest repository of newsgroups. Google Groups has posts going back to 1995, which makes it an excellent choice for researching older items.

Even if you're researching a current support issue, you might want to try Google Groups because of its breadth. Unlike Microsoft, Google Groups includes other Usenet newsgroups that might be of value. For example, if you're having problems with an nVidia card and Windows XP, the Microsoft web reader might display results from the following newsgroups:

• microsoft.public.windowsxp_help_and_support
• microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware

The same search using Google Groups would also include posts from non-Microsoft newsgroups:

• alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia
• comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video
• alt.sys.pc-clone.dell

Often, when researching a Microsoft issue, we'll start with their newsreader. Rather than posting a new message we always search for our topic and filter by answered questions. Usually, our question has been asked and answered.

If our search doesn't show anything promising, we'll expand our search using Google.

Again, if nothing pops up we'll log in and post our question to the proper newsgroup using the Microsoft newsreader. We also take advantage of the email notification feature so we're alerted when someone has responded to our topic.

Additional Resources

• 3 minute tutorial - Microsoft Newsgroup Reader
• 4 minute tutorial - Google Groups

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