Using Windows Troubleshooting (part 2) - Examining the Troubleshooters

3. Examining the Troubleshooters

Back in the Troubleshooting control panel, you will see a list of built-in troubleshooter categories, including Programs, Hardware and Sound, Network and Internet, Appearance and Personalization, and System and Security. Windows Troubleshooting can't solve every problem you could encounter, but it does try to hit the high points. To see how a typical troubleshooter works, you can try out the Programs troubleshooter.

Troubleshooting offers two links around Programs. The first, for the Programs heading itself, will display a Troubleshoot problems – Programs window when clicked, as shown in Figure 4. This interface provides links to all of the troubleshooters in the Programs category.

Figure 4. Windows 7 includes several troubleshooters just for programs.

Note that not all of the troubleshooters are designed to find or fix issues. Some simply provide you with a way to return an application to its default state. For example, you can troubleshoot issues with media files not appearing in Windows Media Player, which is a pretty obvious issue, but there's also a troubleshooter that returns Windows Media Player to its default settings.

When you click on a specific troubleshooter, a troubleshooter window like the one in Figure 5 appears. These troubleshooters are essentially wizard-based applications that step you through the process of fixing a specific problem.

When you click Next, the wizard tries to figure out what has gone wrong. Next, you'll either see a recommendation or a firm message, like that one in Figure 6, that explains the issue.

Figure 5. We're trying to figure out why DVDs won't play on this PC.

Figure 6. Ah, that actually does make sense.

If you do solve the problem, you're told to close the troubleshooter or explore additional options. This brings up the Additional Information view (see Figure 7), which provides access to other troubleshooting resources, including Help and Support, Windows Communities (online newsgroups that are populated with snobby Microsoft sycophants and should thus be avoided), and a link to find related troubleshooters. There are also links for Remote Assistance (which debuted back in Windows XP), the new Recovery tools , and online support.

Figure 7. Additional Information provides you with other avenues for support.

The Find related troubleshooters link is particularly interesting because it actually searches the available troubleshooters for any that may in fact be related to the issue you just tried to fix. As shown in Figure 8, it actually does a pretty good job of finding related issues.

Figure 8. Didn't find exactly what you wanted? Troubleshooting tries to help.