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A Knowledge Base Protest

Grassroots effort under way to persuade Microsoft to bring back KnowledgeBase service.

Jeff Belina, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, doesn't like the fact that Microsoft has recently eliminated a useful Knowledge Base tool. So he's begun a grassroots effort to persuade Microsoft to bring back the service.

Previously, Belina writes, if "you knew an article number, you could send an e-mail to MShelp@microsoft.com and it would send you the text of the...article." The service was called, "Ask Maxwell."

An online customer representative confirmed that Microsoft has eliminated the service and has no plans to bring it back. Microsoft made the decision after doing online surveys that showed most customers prefer to search the entire database and browse the offerings. The rep's suggestion: View the articles at http://support.microsoft.com/support.

Belina found the service handy because he could include the article number in text for e-mail newsletters vs. an unwieldy URL. When he received articles from the Knowledge Base in the form of e-mail, he could shove them into an e-mail folder for offline reading. He also points out that it was a useful service for international users who may have access to e-mail but not to the Internet.

Those who miss it, like Belina, can tell Microsoft so at its Web response address, wrhelp@microsoft.com.

About the Author

Dian L. Schaffhauser is a freelance writer based in Northern California.

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