Microsoft To ‘Fix It’ For You

Microsoft has begun adding a ‘Fix It' button to some of its online help documents to automatically resolve problems.

It’s happened to almost everyone using Microsoft software. You’re working, and there’s a problem, so you search in help for a fix. Now, however, on at least 100 help documents there’s a new option – a button you can click that will fix the error automatically, CNET reports.

In December there were just four automatic Microsoft fixes available, so the number is rising, and the company is looking in its archives to discover which fixes can be automated, As Lori Brownell, Microsoft’s general manager of product quality and online support, said:

"If we know what those 15 steps are why shouldn’t we just script it."

For those who really don’t want Microsoft solving their problems, they can follow the instructions and apply their own fixes.

To date the auto fixes include such things as restoring a missing IE icon to the desktop or enabling the DVD library in Vista’s Windows Media Center. In time it’s hoped to have the Fix It tool created at the same time as the help articles.

Obviously, it’s unlikely that there will never be problems, as Brownell admitted:

"We’d love for our customers to never have problems. We’ll never ship bug-free software as hard as we try."

But what is conceivable is that the products could be proactive, spotting the problems and offering their own solutions. For the moment, however, that’s an eventual goal rather than rapidly attainable reality.