There must be some guys at Microsoft who are quite frustrated about all this Vista bashing. And what would a developer do to defend himself? Right, he would program a tool that proves that you are wrong, not the operating system. It is a matter of fact that many blame Windows if something doesn’t work as it is supposed to. Hardware problems, sloppily programmed device drivers, buggy apps, or an overloaded and mal-configured system—it is always Windows and especially Microsoft who are to blame.

I repaired the computer of a friend recently. After I removed tons of useless stuff from her computer everything worked again. Before I left she said, “If I ever meet Bill Gates…” Poor Gates, I just thought, but I knew it wouldn’t help to explain that Mr. Gates had nothing to do with her problems. Essentially, the job of Windows Advisor is to tell Microsoft customers that Mr. Gates is a nice fellow because he gives you a free tool that tries to fix computer problems that Windows is not even responsible for. If this tool is really able to do what Microsoft’s marketing promises, it could make life easier for all computer savvy people who have to fix the PCs of not so computer savvy people. It is even supposed to support help desk personnel:

While in the past support was limited to a help desk, today the lines are becoming blurred between the various technologies. When a user has a sluggish Internet connection, is it due to a connectivity issue, spyware, a virus, an outdated or poorly maintained computer, the router, a failing hard drive, or simply the customer’s impatience? To be effective in today’s environment, computer care and support services must be more comprehensive and accurate. That’s where we believe Windows Advisor comes in.

I am sorry to say this, but I don’t share this belief. Today, I tried Windows Advisor. I was curious to see if it really would be able to detect and solve typical problems. When I first started “PC Checkup” I was somewhat surprised that it found some problems on my computer because everything was working fine. But after having a closer look, I realized that they were all just general tips such as “empty the temporary Internet files folder” or “install Java runtime”. (See screenshot for more). I don’t remember when I last needed Java runtime on a desktop computer, but it must have been ages ago. I wonder why they don’t recommend installing Silverlight.

Anyway, some of the tips were not so bad, so I was still hopeful that this tool might indeed be helpful. Windows Advisor promises to help with sluggish Internet connections and connectivity issues. So I thought I’d set up an easy problem to get started and just unplugged the network cable. As you can imagine, my Internet connection was quite “sluggish” then. Unfortunately, Windows Advisor still suggested that I should “increase the number of downloads” to speed up my Internet connection. It didn’t even realize that I had quite a serious connectivity issue.

I tried a couple of similar things such as disabling the network adaptor, unplugging the printer cable, and so on. Windows Advisor never found a problem. I also reduced the amount of RAM to 384MB on a Vista machine, to see whether the tool would ask me, in its friendly manner, how I could be so naïve as to think that a Microsoft OS would run on such a narrow-chested system nowadays. Well, it still suggested installing Java runtime.

I usually don’t blame Microsoft for problems on a Windows machine easily. But I have to blame them for offering such a useless tool. There are already countless ineffective tuning tools out there. Diagnosing computer or performance problems is a very complex issue. In my view, it is impossible that a simple tool like Windows Advisor could really be helpful here. It is the job of the operating system or the application to inform its user with meaningful error messages if problems occur. If the operating system doesn’t have this information, an additional tool won’t be able to find the problem either. I only tested the beta version of Windows Advisor, but I seriously doubt that the final will be smarter.

However, there is one thing I like about Windows Advisor. There are a couple of tutorials that show you live on your desktop how to perform a certain task. They call this thing “vCoach“. I think Microsoft should just forget about Windows Advisor and integrate vCoach into Windows Help. If you want to try Windows Advisor, you have to log on to Microsoft Connect and download it there.

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