The Moth

MSDN Roadshow: 3 down, 3 to go.

In addition to presenting at events, I also attend many in a support/helper capacity. As such, I mingle with the crowd and get to hear what they think about our products. Recent such events were the DevDays event on security in London and the DDD III event in Reading (also look out for me at the Office DevCon in a couple of weeks).

Whether attending, speaking or helping, one of the unwritten "rules" is that I wear a Microsoft shirt. This means that I get many questions, some that I can answer on the spot and some that I take with me for follow up. While I respond to every query I get and am more than happy to listen, help me help you by trying the advice below :-)

1. Search MSDN. Write your question down as if you were going to email it to someone. Then pick out the words that your mom wouldn't understand and enter them in the search box. You'll be amazed at how useful the results can be. Sometimes we forget that we don't call it the Microsoft Developer Network for nothing.

2. Search the newgroups. If you don't find an answer, post your question to the newsgroups.

3. Use the forums.

My bet is that there are no .NET developer questions on our current technologies that the above route cannot answer... none!

Remember that ultimately, Product Support Services is the place where you can get help in an official capacity. Finally, your feedback is always appreciated on ladybug.

I wrote a similar blog entry in my MVP days (due to the high volume of directed email I received) with a particular focus on NETCF: Before you email me with a question