This is not an answer to the letter of your question. I sympathize with you. I rarely need to know things about Microsoft OSes and when I do have no clue where to go for help. In the future I will probably, if the nature of the problem seems to suit, try the Chatterbox here.

The Debian mailing lists are useful if your linux is Debian.

There is a knowedgable old guard still following some of the comp.* groups. If you can learn programs like trn or tin newsgroups aren't bad, I haven't found a GUI newsreader that lets me go through a voluminous group as easily as trn.