Alternate procedures assisting computer users in solving problems related to error and informational messages

• US 8,645,760 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2009
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Faqware
• Original Assignee: Faqware
• Inventors: van Gilluwe, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson, Yolanda L
• Application Number:
  US12/461,023
• Publication Number:
  US 20100115348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48, 714/57, 714/26, 714/38.1
• US Class Current: 714/38.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

The invention monitors display (error) messages from software programs presented to users and looks for items of interest. When detected, the text of the message is collected along with source of the message, and other details. This data is checked against a database of Messages, either locally, or networked to a remote database. If the issue has not been previously detected it is added to the database. If the message had been detected previously, counters recording frequency of occurrence. Then an option to see additional information is provided. If selected the database returns all the information it has on this specific issue. Also, additionally created content that normally does not exist in the message such as which application and vendor issued the message, frequency of occurrence, and vendor contact information. Additional content such as a detailed description and solutions that were manually created is included in the results to the user. The user can perform additional research and the collected information can be emailed to another user or company.

Claims

1. A method for assisting a computer user with problem-solving a software error on a computational device, comprising the steps of:

implementing and executing monitoring instructions on said computational device for detecting a software error in an user-launched executable program or operating system executed independently of said monitoring instructions, and determining a set of error parameters based on said software error;

displaying, on said computational device, an option to access and display a set of assistance instructions;

if said user chooses said option to access said set of assistance instructions, then accessing said set of assistance instructions based on set of error parameters;

said set of assistance instructions stored on a networked server and accessed via network by said computational device;

weighting, on a second computational device connected to said network server, said set of said assistance instructions based on said set of error parameters;

displaying a set of assistance instructions on said computational device based on said weighting step;

adding to store of assistance instructions to said software error parameters on said networked server;

re-weighting said assistance instructions based on any user-implemented actions following said displaying step and said set of error parameters;

wherein said displaying step includes determining the display characteristics of said executable program and mimicking said display characteristics in said executable program performing said displaying option step.

2. A method for assisting a computer user with problem-solving a software error on a computational device, comprising the steps of:

implementing and executing monitoring instructions on said computational device for detecting a software error in an user-launched executable program or operating system executed independently of said monitoring instructions, and determining a set of error parameters based on said software error;

displaying, on said computational device, an option to access and display a set of assistance instructions;

if user chooses said option to access said set of assistance instructions, then accessing said set of assistance instructions based on set of error parameters;

said set of assistance instructions stored on a networked server and accessed via network by said computational device;

weighting, on a second computational device connected to said network server, sad of said assistance instructions based on said set of error parameters;

displaying a set of assistance instructions on said computational device based on said weighting step;

adding to store of assistance instructions to said software error parameters on said networked server;

re-weighting said assistance instructions based on any user-implemented actions following said displaying step and said set of error parameters, wherein said displaying a set of assistance instructions includes screen shots with blurred out areas that change for each user.

3. A method for displaying information related to a display message from a first user-launched executable software program or operating system on a computational device:

allowing a user to determine a set of variables to include or exclude from a set of display messages that may appear from said executable software program or operating system on said computational device;

monitoring said first user-launched executable program and/or operating system for one of said display messages from any of said first user-launched software program(s) and/or operating system;

determining if one of said display messages is included by using said set of user-determined variables;

extracting parametric information from a said included display message;

determining that said included display message is information, error or warning;

saving said included display message content and related information to data storage;

incrementing a frequency of occurrence counter;

displaying said message with an additional solution button on said computational device,

if said solution button is selected by a user, then;

displaying said saved information;

sending said parametric information to a database via a network;

checking said database for more information based on said parametric information, and if said more information is available then sending said more information via network to said computational device and displaying description solutions on said computational device.

4. The method for displaying information related to an display message as recited in claim 3, further comprising the step of emailing alert other users to a specific problem or assist a corporate help desk.