Using System Information to gather troubleshooting info

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Every version of Office since '97 has included a powerful diagnostics tool.

To use it, choose Help, About Microsoft Powerpoint, then click System Info...
(If you don't have this option, re-run Office Setup and add the MSINFO component.)

What you see will depend on which version of Office or Windows you have, but at the very least you'll be able to view a System Summary and get a detailed listing of your Hardware Resources, Components, Software Environment and much more.

To most of us, it's Geek. Not Greek, Geek. But it might be just the thing MS support people need to reproduce, trace and -- we devoutly hope -- FIX the problem you're having.

To save a full report, choose File, Save or Export. Depending on the version you have, you may only be able to save as text, or you may be able to Save/Export to NFO or XML as well. Given a choice, pick NFO.

There are a lot of other interesting features:

You can pick any specific area (Hardware Resources, Conflicts/Sharing, for example) and choose Edit, Select All, then copy the info to the clipboard so you can paste it into another application or an email message.

Under View, you can choose to examine Current System Information (the default setting) or you can opt for System History. In History view, you can choose how far back you want to view details in the area labeled "View Changes Since:"

Finally, under tools there are some gems.

Net Diagnostics lets you run ... well ... network diagnostics. Amazing co-incidence, eh?

System Restore gives you another way of working with XP's system restore points. (Really, it's just an alternate route to the usual place, but it's handy to have all your troubleshooting tools in one place like this).

Direct X Diagnostic Tool lets you give your video system a real workout and enable/disable Direct-X features that might be causing trouble.

Signature Verification lets you check your system and other files for valid "digital signatures".

Dr. Watson lets you configure what info the good Doc will save when your apps go belly up, and it lets you view the details from previous mishaps.

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