Posting Threads with some helpful information

[Regedit32]

Hi Ian,

Is it at all possible to create a system when a user asks their initial question that they are prompted to click a few boxes in order to provide some basic information such as their computer type, model, current windows build etcetera?

It seems some think to offer up this information but many do not and often it would be helpful to have that information before offering a solution.

 

[Trouble]

Maybe if just a prompt for first time posters to fill out their system specs area of their membership profile, that would help some.
Of course, that does little to help, if the question is not about their computer.
Maybe an article about "How to help us, help you" with some links to msinfo32 or third party products that might help them gather relevant details, assuming that the computer is bootable.
That may impact my post count though considering a rather high percentage of my posts are asking for
Manufacturer's Name, Model Name, Model Number, etc., etc., etc. although, I would definitely sacrifice the post count to avoid the
"My computer is broke how do I fix it" type posts.

 

[Regedit32]

My favorite comment is " I've tried all the suggestions others have said in my google search ... "

Oh really, and what suggestions were those precisely?

 

[Trouble]

All of them??
Which leaves us hard pressed for a starting point when you know his or her next post is going to be.....
"I already tried that"
Which of course ranks right up there among my favorites.

 

[Trouble]

Remind me again...... why we do this?

 

[Regedit32]

Remind me again...... why we do this?

Ahh because despite having googled every possible solution the one thing they never do is go to manufacturer forum and check there given 9/10 the issue they have is a common one and a solution is sitting on the forum board.

Failing that you could always suggest using Bing *evil grin*

 

[Tim Locke]

Also useful to know where they are...that is when to expect a reply from them.

What AV they are using or equally were using before they hit the button to install W10.

 

[Norton]

You guys be honest now. You wouldn't want it any other way, would you.
The team on this forum are excellent problem solvers, with a sense of humor, I like that.
This problem will hone your skills. My Commodore 64 sits spinning circles when I try to upgrade to Win 10.

 

[Regedit32]

This problem will hone your skills. My Commodore 64 sits spinning circles when I try to upgrade to Win 10.

That is easily resolved provided its not more than 30 days.

Start > Settings > Updates & Security > Recovery > Reset this to VIC-20

 

[Trouble]

I'm willing to bet he "already tried that".

 

[davehc]

You could incorporate a message, when newcomers first login, to run something like Msinfo32. But it would have to be incorporated with a batch file in order to publish it in the profile, automatically.

 

[Ian]

I think we'll find it very hard to force people to enter system specs during registration, but I'll knock up a tutorial in the next couple of days on how to find the system specs info and how to enter it on the site. I'll add a link to this in the welcome message .

I guess there will be lots of posts that won't need system spec information, but when we do need it we can always re-direct them to that article to get the information if it hasn't been provided.

 

[Norton]

Many people don't have a clue what their system specs are. A tutorial would be very helpful, or a link to Belarc Advisor or something similar. They could copy and paste their system specs in their post.

 

[Norton]

That is easily resolved provided its not more than 30 days.

Start > Settings > Updates & Security > Recovery > Reset this to VIC-20

Pacmania game seems to lag with Win 10.

 

[Trouble]

msinfo32 can provide a wealth of information.
While not as pretty or fancy as perhaps some of the third party solutions like Belarc or Speccy, it's native and does not require installation.
You can use the menu bar to save a copy to your desktop which, depending on the contents can approach 3 megs in size, but.....
You can right click it and choose send to compressed (zipped) folder and you end up with file closer to 250KB which can be attached to a post.
Contained in which you can find some summary information about the hardware, windows version, memory, etc.
Along with more details regarding running processes / modules, services, drivers installed (version and dates), more specifics as to hardware devices and adapters, startup programs and on and on.
Again... none of this can be produced if the machine is not bootable, but if we can get them into safemode........

 

[davehc]

Speccy and Belarq give away too much confidential info, such as passwords. The average users might find editing it out difficult.

 

[Norton]

Speccy and Belarq give away too much confidential info, such as passwords. The average users might find editing it out difficult.

That's true! The info can be overwhelming. I like Ian's idea of a tutorial.

 

[Trouble]

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/windows-logo-hangs-on-startup-help.9241/
I rest my case.

 

[Ian]

I'm hoping to have this article up by the end of the week (rather than yesterday, as planned!), as my workload has been sky-high this past month and I'm still catching up on things. Just wanted to post a quick update so it didn't look like I had forgotten .

 

[Norton]

Ian Thanks for the update.