Editor’s Note: Do It Yourself

With all the do-it-yourself programs out there, it was only a matter of time before “do it yourself” came to tech support with Fix it Center Pro.

Lafe Low

The do-it-yourself—or DIY—movement is well underway. There are DIY shows that focus on home improvement, cooking, car maintenance and all sorts of other topics spread across the cable channels. It was only a matter of time before the DIY movement came to technical support and service.

Microsoft Fix it Center Pro automates the troubleshooting process to help you and your user community do a bit of your own troubleshooting. Naturally, more serious problems would likely be escalated eventually anyway, but Fix it Center Pro can get you going on the right path to resolving your technology issues.

Fix it Center Pro works on the philosophy of common problems and common causes. The common areas for diagnostics and performance analysis are broken up primarily by product group—Exchange Server, Windows Server and so on. Indicate the technology that’s giving you trouble, and Fix it Center Pro delivers an Analysis package. From there, you’ll run through a few brief questions to start the diagnostic process.

This takes the combined expertise and experience of Microsoft and puts it at your disposal for making an initial assessment of any technical problem. For more complex problems, Fix it Center Pro takes down some system information and sends it back to Microsoft for a more thorough review.

Something like this was inevitable. In our DIY, self-service culture, who wouldn’t want to take at least the first crack at resolving their own technology issues by themselves without having to call and wait for—or call and wait and spend money on—organized technical support? Fix it Center Pro puts that power in your hands. Keep an eye on TechNet Magazine for more in-depth coverage of this new support platform as it goes live.

Help Yourself

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Lafe Low is the editor in chief of TechNet Magazine. A veteran technology journalist, he’s also the former executive editor of 1105 Media’s Redmond magazine.