I’ve debated how I can help myself as the computer kindly suggests to me.  I suppose I could keep doing stuff like most admins do until it works, but I didn’t really feel like ruining my computer.  Therefore, I googled the problem and eventually found some documentation that solved the problem.  As always, when I come up with a solution, I always post it on AdminReference. 

So why do you suppose the computer spits out errors and normally adds that you should ask your administrator for help?  The answer is because most computer users are general computer users who can usually get by most novice tasks like word processing, web browsing, and possibly email.  I know many friends who are easily classified into this group of computer users and they typically seek my help for more advanced concepts such as virus removal.

These error messages are not meant for high level administrators and they are not aimed to administrators who usually (hopefully) know what they are doing or have a very good idea of what they are doing.  The sad part is, I’ve found that the higher level administrators tend to run into these error messages more frequently than normal computer users. For me, I normally get a lot of these messages when I do new stuff.  When I do new stuff, I familiarize myself with the documentation ahead of time, and I normally feel comfortable with the tasks required to get the software up and running, not to mention, happily co-existing along everything else that I already am very familiar with.

Naturally I’m not that experienced with new software programs, but I almost always feel like these errors are meant for complete idiots.  For example, when I installed Exchange 2003, I kept getting a domainprep error saying contact my administrator.  The documentation from Microsoft was step by step, practically a child’s guide! I swear that a child could have followed this guide.  Another sad fact is, most high level admins are being paid a lot of money to follow these guides that practically remove all of the fun that makes administration a fun challenge to me.  I do understand that these kinds of guides are nice since there is no guesswork involved.  But these guides seem like they are a bit time consuming because every step is included.  For example, I read steps like: 1. click Start, 2. Click on Control Panel, 3. Click Add and Remove Programs… etc to get to the components screen.  For any experienced Windows Admin, saying “install the WINS service” or “goto the Component installation screen of Add and Remove Programs” sounds very familiar and I bet any admin with some experience could do that without the hand holding guide.  Thats why I believe most admins don’t need the hand holding that these guides provide, so save everyone’s time and say goto add and remove programs!  And… if these admins don’t know how to do that, well, 1. they shouldn’t be admins, and 2. there are other tutorials on google that will tell you how to do this:: *I would laugh though*!

With the above said, I do believe in hand holding guides for non administrator applications, such as Microsoft Word which most novice users use on a daily basis.  I could see why the hand holding would be necessary for some users.  Actually, in some cases, I could see the hand holding in some guides inadequate.  Although I don’t have examples available off hand, I’m sure that other admins know what I’m talking about when they get support calls to fix why my printer won’t print when the problem is as simple as: cable became unplugged.  I’ve also seen people who will skip steps since they can’t be possible, yet they are the cause (I’ve actually done this many times in my life).

Thats enough on this topic   But next time you get that error and you are the admin, you might think twice and laugh at the computer   I know I do now, it keeps me from getting annoyed   I then usually post my solution to AdminReference.