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It has become a common joke that nearly anything you might want to search for on the Internet is best found through Google, including Microsoft support. It seems that a standard query of the Microsoft Knowledge Base (MSKB) at http://support.microsoft.com will return a less refined set of results than if you just let Google do it for you. Through a small series of steps, though, you can narrow your results at MSKB to an even more refined set than you’re likely to get from Google. We’ll show you how!
First, if you’ve never searched the MSKB directly before, the remarkable insignificant default way of searching it will disappoint you.
Don’t even stop to type here. Just click directly on the Advanced Search option below the textbox. This takes you to the best place to search and refine your results. And I do have a question about something I used to know by heart but can’t remember for the life of me how to do it! Did you know you can create a text file with the proper entries in it and drop it into your Windows server’s SMTP pickup folder and have it deliver the file as an email message? Do you know how? Neither do I. I’ve forgotten.
If I just try typing in the phrase Using SMTP pickup folder at the MSKB, Google and MSN Search, I get more than 20 hits at MSKB, 807,000 at Google and 7,361 at MSN Search. Unfortunately, I only need one answer. We need to get this narrowed down a little.
At the MSKB, if I go to the Advanced Search page and click on the Using: field, I can select a Boolean search. Most people, and I can’t say as I blame them too much, will stop caring the moment they see the word Boolean. But it’s really too bad. Watch what happens when we learn how to use it.
If you aren’t one of the people who have ever taken the time to look, the MSKB help section at the bottom of the Advanced Search page says this about using the Boolean option:
Boolean (text contains AND/OR) customizes your search to include or exclude words or groups of words by using Boolean expressions:
AND shows pages that contain both of the words specified.
OR shows pages that contain either of the words specified.
AND NOT shows pages that do not contain the word specified.
Note that if you do not use text that contains AND, OR, or AND NOT, the Boolean search results will show pages matching all words specified in any order (AND).
Now, that may look confusing but there’s a gem or two in this set of instructions. The MSKB Boolean search option is based on the search capabilities of the old Technet subscriptions in which you could store your searches, search within results, etc., all based on a pretty simple set of Boolean expressions…and they weren’t too hard to learn to use. And part of that search capability was to be able to put a phrase in quotation marks and then use a Boolean operator to search for other words and phrases in the same search. Cool! Useful! Mine!
Searching with this expression, though, still returns at least 20 hits and I’ve noticed that several are concerning things about which I really don’t give a…I’m sure you understand. With a Boolean search, though, you can whittle those uninteresting hits down to an even more discreet set of results. Using the AND NOT Boolean operators we can modify our query easily. I’m going to use using “AND SMTP AND pickup AND NOT exchange AND NOT ".Net"”.
This should filter out results for .Net and for Exchange. Let’s see what happens.
Bingo!!! Eureka!! Voila!! Eight, count ‘em, eight results and, look!, the first one is pertinent to my needs!
The Secret Words
There are other interesting things you can do with Boolean and some ‘secret’ words at the MSKB. For instance, would you like the complete list of all of Microsoft’s confirmed bugs or flaws for, say, Microsoft Word 2000? Try this expression:
“Microsoft has confirmed” AND (bug OR flaw) AND “Word 2000”
In this expression, just like in Algebra 1, putting an expression within parentheses causes that expression to be evaluated separately from the rest of the operators. In addition, using quotes around a word causes it’s spelling and case to be part of the evaluation. In this query, for example, “Word 2000” will help limit the returns to not exclude “word”.
Power to the Enabled
With just a little imagination and the abandonment of fear, the Boolean search option at Microsoft’s Knowledge Base can become a tool for effective, pertinent and limited results to aid in troubleshooting Microsoft Products. We encourage you to work with this often overlooked feature and combine its use with the other options available at http://support.microsoft.com to more easily and quickly resolve your own Microsoft product problems!
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