Technical Writer

I finally decided to purchase a TechNet subscription so that I could keep up-to-date with the new version of Microsoft Office and SharePoint.

I have since spent the most frustrating three weeks trying to get the whole thing up and running.

My problem was that while I appeared to have TechNet access, I could not download programs that had already been released to market—Office 2007, Vista, etc.

I consider myself a reasonably competent user.  I can generally muddle my way through most problems just by perservering, but this time I came very close to throwing the whole thing in.

Most normal users would already have done so.  (By ‘normal’ I mean end users who are not part of an IT department.)

Herein lies one of the biggest problems with learning that I know of.

The steepest part of the learning curve is right at the start.  People are at their most confused when starting something new.  It gets easier, but unless they are particularly persistent, or have a real need to find a solution, they give up before they get to the easy part.

Their problems at this stage are usually simple.  They can’t find a link, they don’t know what to do next, and there is no-one around to point them in the right direction.

With my TechNet subscription, for example, there was a Download tab across the top of the screen.  I could click on this and get to a page that allowed me to download beta versions of software that was still being developed.  I could search on, say, Vista and get to a page that said Vista had been released to market and that TechNet Subscribers could get it from here. I clicked on the link, which took me to another page, which took me right back to the page that said “TechNet subscribers can get a copy from here.”

The FAQs talked about TechNet Direct Downloads and Product Keys link.

I couldn’t find that link and I didn’t know if it was because something was wrong or because it had been replaced by the Download tab—and if that was the case, why hadn’t they updated the FAQs?

To make matters worse, there was no support.  The only contact information I could find was a link to the forums, of which none were specific to TechNet installation problems, and one contact number and email address for TechNet sales.

Where was all this support they had promised—the online support chats, even the two support calls that came free with the TechNet subscription?

My problem was that I didn’t really know what my problem was yet.

By this time I was extremely frustrated, and ready to try the scattergun query method.

This method seldom works.  It relies on the goodwill of someone answering a question outside the realm in which it should have been asked, simply out of the goodness of their heart.

I sent an email to the TechNet blog.  I posted on one of the Vista forums. By this stage I didn’t care how stupid I sounded.  I was desperate, and ready to ring the sales office next.

TechNet seemed to recognise me.  It asked me to log on each time, and said, “Hello Cab Sav,” and knew all I about me and my preferences, so I don’t know what made me change my Microsoft passport.  Just the slow, tedious plodding one normally does, I suppose, trying to track down a problem.

When I associated the new passport with my TechNet subscription I suddenly had links I had never seen before.  Including a Direct Downloads and Product Keys link.

Hooray.

The celebrations didn’t last long. Every time I clicked to go to the download page I ended up with the same problem.  Click to go here, click on the link on the following page, and that took me back to the ‘Click to go here‘ page. 

But … all was not lost. I had other links now, too. Support links, including one to an online chat.

Irene, I think her name was, told me to log out, delete all my cookies, and log back in again.  How did I go?

It still didn’t work.

“Don’t worry,” she told me.  “A number of people have had the same problem.  It’s a problem at the server end.  It’s intermittant. Try again later and you should get on.”

Naturally, I didn’t believe her, but I thanked her nicely and logged off.

Half an hour later I tried again and everything worked perfectly.

Hooray.

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p.s.  Microsoft got back to me a day later as a result of my posting to the TechNet blog.  The person whose name is on the sales link.  He (or she) offered helpful suggestions about linking my Passport—which I had already done, so I’m not sure it would have worked until I associated a new one, but they were extremely polite and helpful.  I have to say, the Microsoft support all round, when I finally got it, was good.  

Last Modified : March 17th, 2007
Filed under : Tech Writer
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