One of the more frustrating situations in the Answers forums is to have a poster say something along the lines of, "I used a FixIt and it didn't work," or "I used a FixIt and now my installation is messed up," or similar complaints.
The problem I, at least, have in attempting to help in such situations is that I have no idea what FixIt might have been used or what it did -- and neither does the original poster.
While the idea of an automated routine to fix common errors is laudable, there's only so much "intelligence" you can code into such a routine. Undoubtedly the FixIt routines work well for the precise issue(s) that they were intended to address, but often
that's not the actual problem that the poster has.
So, it would be extremely helpful to the volunteers in the Answers forums if:
A. Every FixIt would display a message -- that would stay up long enough to be copied -- that included: an identifier (like a KB number), the URL where the FixIt is located, and a brief description of what the FixIt is supposed to do.
B. For responders (not necessarily those who seek a FixIt to deal with a problem) there should be an associated URL where the detailed steps taken by the FixIt are set out. This would be like the "Let me fix it myself" section of KB articles that
refer to FixIt routines. I understand that the people who code FixIt routines try not to break things, but for those situations where running a FixIt does not help the OP or worse, causes additional problems, it really is essential to know what the automatic
routine did in order to be able to undo it.
One of the more frustrating situations in the Answers forums is to have a poster say something along the lines of, "I used a FixIt and it didn't work," or "I used a FixIt and now my installation is messed up," or similar complaints.
The problem I, at least, have in attempting to help in such situations is that I have no idea what FixIt might have been used or what it did -- and neither does the original poster.
While the idea of an automated routine to fix common errors is laudable, there's only so much "intelligence" you can code into such a routine. Undoubtedly the FixIt routines work well for the precise issue(s) that they were intended to address, but often
that's not the actual problem that the poster has.
So, it would be extremely helpful to the volunteers in the Answers forums if:
A. Every FixIt would display a message -- that would stay up long enough to be copied -- that included: an identifier (like a KB number), the URL where the FixIt is located, and a brief description of what the FixIt is supposed to do.
B. For responders (not necessarily those who seek a FixIt to deal with a problem) there should be an associated URL where the detailed steps taken by the FixIt are set out. This would be like the "Let me fix it myself" section of KB articles that
refer to FixIt routines. I understand that the people who code FixIt routines try not to break things, but for those situations where running a FixIt does not help the OP or worse, causes additional problems, it really is essential to know what the automatic
routine did in order to be able to undo it.
