Resources for Troubleshooting Development Errors

If you encounter an error while writing or running your code, the error message might include enough information to help you resolve the problem. If not, you can consult Knowledge Base articles, developer communities, integration services, or product support.

Knowledge Base Articles

You can search the Knowledge Base (KB) and view articles about product issues on the Microsoft Web site. Not all issues have a corresponding KB article, but errors encountered by a significant number of customers are usually documented. You can access KB articles at https://support.microsoft.com.

Developer Communities

Developer communities provide a variety of ways to get answers to questions through forums, blogs, chats, Webcasts, and other resources.

Microsoft sponsors and manages forums for many development products and technologies. In forums you can interact with other developers and with Microsoft employees. If you encounter an error that you cannot find a resolution for, you can search the forums to see if others have posted about the same issue. If you do not find a resolution in the forum, you can post your own question.

Many developers have blogs, where they discuss technologies they work with. Check whether there are blogs that cover areas that interest you. You can often interact with the writers directly by posting comments to relevant blog entries.

You can find forums, blogs, chats, and other resources online on the Microsoft Technical Communities Web page.

Integration Services

Summit Software provides Visual Studio Tools for Applications integration services, developer communities like forums and blogs, and product support. For more information, see Summit Software.

Product Support

If none of these methods provide you with the answers you need, you can contact Microsoft Help and Support. For a list of support options, see https://support.microsoft.com.

See Also

Concepts

Support and Other Resources

Other Resources

Product Support and Accessibility

Interacting with Other Developers

Getting Started (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)