Very uncool; Microsoft even uses an URL shortener for most of their links (from windows etc) so that they can theoretically change where the user ends up at if the original page is replaced for whatever reason.
But they shouldn't. Microsoft especially should make all of their documentation pages plain static HTML pages and keep them available forever.
But also, any Windows documentation can live offline in the OS itself. At least nowadays, I get how in the windows 98 / XP era they wanted to reduce disk usage.
Microsoft is so careful about making sure they only use the URL forwarder (go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=) in their products but then at some point decided "oh this is too hard let's just set most of the IDs to point at the Microsoft support home page" (support.microsoft.com). Not even Windows, all of Microsoft!
The Event Log fwlinks still append the `ProdName=MicrosoftWindowsOperatingSystem` to the URL and the Microsoft Support homepage just ignores them helpfully asking "What do you need help with today?" and putting Windows on the second row of a 5 column grid.
Open the Event Viewer, click on an event and click the blue "Event Log Online Help" hyperlink at the bottom. I'll be willing to bet it won't matter what event you pick, you'll still end up at the Microsoft Support homepage.
Others take you on a roundabout journey to the Microsoft homepage.
> GET /fwlink/?LinkId=52884 HTTP/1.1
< Location: https://www.microsoft.com/products/ee/transform.aspx?[snip]
> GET /products/ee/transform.aspx?[snip] HTTP/2
< location: https://www.microsoft.com/?[snip]
If you click the Help question mark in Explorer you end up at a Bing search page for the query "get help with file explorer in windows". I thought at one point they had specialised cards shown above the results for these queries but today it's just a generic Bing results page.
> GET /fwlink/?LinkId=528884 HTTP/1.1
< Location: https://www.bing.com/search?q=get+help+with+file+explorer+in+windows&filters=guid:%224026535-en-dia%22%20lang:%22en%22&form=S00028
Comments
Very uncool; Microsoft even uses an URL shortener for most of their links (from windows etc) so that they can theoretically change where the user ends up at if the original page is replaced for whatever reason.
But they shouldn't. Microsoft especially should make all of their documentation pages plain static HTML pages and keep them available forever.
But also, any Windows documentation can live offline in the OS itself. At least nowadays, I get how in the windows 98 / XP era they wanted to reduce disk usage.
Microsoft is so careful about making sure they only use the URL forwarder (go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=) in their products but then at some point decided "oh this is too hard let's just set most of the IDs to point at the Microsoft support home page" (support.microsoft.com). Not even Windows, all of Microsoft!
The Event Log fwlinks still append the `ProdName=MicrosoftWindowsOperatingSystem` to the URL and the Microsoft Support homepage just ignores them helpfully asking "What do you need help with today?" and putting Windows on the second row of a 5 column grid.
Open the Event Viewer, click on an event and click the blue "Event Log Online Help" hyperlink at the bottom. I'll be willing to bet it won't matter what event you pick, you'll still end up at the Microsoft Support homepage.
Others take you on a roundabout journey to the Microsoft homepage.
If you click the Help question mark in Explorer you end up at a Bing search page for the query "get help with file explorer in windows". I thought at one point they had specialised cards shown above the results for these queries but today it's just a generic Bing results page.