Computer Help Microsoft Offers for Free
One of the most helpful sources of information for Windows and other Microsoft programs is the Microsoft Knowledge Base. The computer help Microsoft offers has all kinds of information that can help track down problems and solutions.
The Microsoft Knowledge Base is full of articles with details of error messages, compatibility problems, update information and other useful stuff. Microsoft updates this database constantly, so as new issues are found they get added to it.
If you're getting an error message when Windows starts up, or any other time for that matter, you can often find answers in the Knowledge Base. To get the best results, write down the exact error that you get, including any numbers it might contain.
Go to the Microsoft support website and enter the exact message in the box at the top left that says "Search the Knowledge Base". If Microsoft has any information about that error, you will get a list of the articles that are related to it. You can click on each article and see if it could solve your problem.
Some of these articles are more technical than others, so it will depend on your comfort level whether you find a solution that you can deal with yourself. If you aren't comfortable with the steps involved, you might still need to get a computer repair shop to do the work for you. You're no farther behind for trying though, and when you need computer help Microsoft just might have an answer that you can easily handle.
Don't Just Search for It - Google It
Besides the computer help Microsoft offers through their Knowledge Base, you can also do a search on Google for the error message that you're getting. As with the Microsoft search, write down the exact error message including any numbers that might be in it.
Go to Google and enter the error exactly as it came up in the search box. The secret to getting the best results from Google is to use quotes with your search.
Let me explain... say the message was File Not Found Error. Instead of just typing file not found error into Google, you should type "file not found error" *with* the quotes. This tells Google that you only want results that match that phrase exactly. It won't find pages that have all those words, but not necessarily in that order.
Scan through the list of results that Google returns and click on any that look like they would be related to your problem. Some of them may not give you the answer you need and some might be overly technical, but as with the computer help Microsoft offers, you might just find the answer to your problem without having to pay a technician to find it for you.
I've been working with computer technicians and service centers for 15 years, and you would be amazed at how often the technicians follow these exact steps to diagnose and fix your problem. Why pay them the big bucks to do something you easily do yourself?