Dell Windows 7 Portal Proffers Problem Fixes and Education

Yesterday, it was my great pleasure to have lunch with David Bohl and Heath Johnson, both of whom work in Dell’s eSupport operation. Amidst a bunch of other interesting topics on how Dell can get its customers to help themselves deal with PC problems, I learned that the company operates what David called “the Windows 7 portal” and which Dell labels as “Online Windows 7 Support” on its gargantuan Website.

Dell’s Windows 7 Support Pages

I’ve just spent the last half-hour or so trolling around this site. As you’d expect, Dell leverages content available at Microsoft (Win7 is their OS, after all), including Help and How-To’s, and the MS Answers forum. but they also have developed some of their own content to help their users along as well. It appears under the heading of “Learn to Use Windows 7″ and includes the following items:

Perform Microsoft Windows Maintenance

Copy (burn) files to a CD or DVD

Use Windows Media Player

Reset Windows 7 passwords

Create new user accounts

Change Display Settings (Resolution)

Transfer files from one system to another

Restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous OS

XP Compatibility Mode and Virtual PC

Windows 7 “How To” Videos

There’s also a pretty comprehensive area entitled “Fix an Issue with Windows 7″ that includes 5-7 entries for items under the subheads of Hardware, Windows Troubleshooting, Errors and Lockups, and Software. This is a useful collection of tips and pointers, and it’s all driven by user problem reports or requests for information. It should also be interesting to keep tabs on this site and see how it grows and evolves over time.