XP Event Log entries' help links no longer working?

[Dave-H]

Hi guys!

I have two machines with XP SP3 on them, and they are both showing this problem.

If I open an event in any of the Event Logs, and click on the "For more information, see Help and Support Center at...." link, I no longer get any information as I've always done before.

I just get a "page not found" message, which then re-directs to Bing, where the offered links usually don't work either!

This has been happening for a few weeks now.

I've searched and can find no reference to this anywhere, so is it happening for everyone on XP?

Is this something to do with end of support, which I would have thought unlikely, but was my first thought of course?!

I have Windows 8.1 on a machine as well, and I know that MS didn't bother to make the Event Log help links work on that before it was released, and they never did on Windows 8 either, which i think is pretty outrageous for an OS that's now been out more than a year, but I've not read anything to the effect that they've now removed the facility on XP as well.

So, is it just me, or is everyone seeing this?

Cheers, Dave.

[Dave-H]

Come on guys, 62 views and not a single reply?!

All I'm asking is if others are seeing the same problem!

[Guest]

I'm seeing it on XP x64 too. Don't know the reason for it though.

[dencorso]

+1

[Dave-H]

Thanks, not just me then!

That's a bit of a relief, as at least I now know it's not just my systems.

MS have obviously changed something that has made this non-functional after over ten years, why I cannot imagine.

I'm just surprised that there seems to be no comment about this anywhere!

[dencorso]

Maybe it's still too soon?

Suppose you were one of the 1st user to notice it, which is likely... That'd mean this very thread is the 1st one about it...

[Dave-H]

Well it has been like this for several weeks now, it hasn't only just happened, so I was surprised to find no mention of it here or on any other forums when I did a search, even the Microsoft help forums seem to have nothing about it.

Maybe I should ask them, although from what I've seen of them the MS help forums seem to be very unhelpful, usually the MS people seem to just post links to other threads or possible solutions, the links don't resolve things, the OP then comes back and says that, and there's then no further response!

[Flasche]

Well it has been like this for several weeks now, it hasn't only just happened, so I was surprised to find no mention of it here or on any other forums when I did a search, even the Microsoft help forums seem to have nothing about it.

Maybe I should ask them, although from what I've seen of them the MS help forums seem to be very unhelpful, usually the MS people seem to just post links to other threads or possible solutions, the links don't resolve things, the OP then comes back and says that, and there's then no further response!

I have the same issue with my Posready 2009 machine (XPsp3) when I tried to trouble shoot my LAN connection. I dont think MS will help cause I guess this how they will prepare to drop XP.

[submix8c]

<<== Wonders if it has to do with IE "interface" into HTML/"The Web"? GAK! I get it too with my "Reinstalled" 2k3sp2 (no updates yet applied) - "Bing" Redirect as well. Guess those events are no longer important?

[Dave-H]

Hi guys! I've posted about this problem here on the Technet forums.

I did get a reply that sent me to here, where someone else had reported pretty much the same issue.

I posted there as well, but the last activity in that thread was back in September last year, so I'm not holding out much hope of a response!

As I said in both posts, I can't see any reason to suddenly withdraw all this information, and if it still there but the links don't work because it's moved, surely this should be corrected, either at Microsoft's end, or by publicising a registry edit to correct it manually on affected systems.

[Dave-H]

Got a reply today from the thread here which seems to indicate that the issue has been escalated.

I'm not holding my breath of course, but good to see that it is being followed up.

[Tripredacus]

I never use those links. Did they actually go to a page that was helpful? I seem to recall they went to some page about as helpful as a 404.

[Dave-H]

Well sometimes they did indeed just go to a page which said that no further information was available, but they did often take you to a page which explained what the error message was about and suggest solutions.

Obviously a web search on the error would do the job just as well, maybe better, but I still think that this facility should work if it's still being offered to the user, at least until all the relevant information about XP is removed from Microsoft's servers, which I hope won't happen for many years yet!

[GrofLuigi]

You can try following the links to check if something modified them on your system or whether the URL responds. I delete them from my registry and that part isn't even displayed.

GL

Edited February 26, 2014 by GrofLuigi

[jaclaz]

Well sometimes they did indeed just go to a page which said that no further information was available, but they did often take you to a page which explained what the error message was about and suggest solutions.

... all of them invariably either wrong, or misleading or BOTH .

At least that was my personal experience, before I gave up for good, several years ago, clicking on those links.

jaclaz