Using Bing for technical instant answers and automated solutions

Bing has been providing factual instant answers (and translation instant answers) for some time now, but recently they added "technical" instant answers for questions about Microsoft products and technologies or technical support issues. My previous team built the content management system that our internal content delivery teams are now using to add technical instant answers to Bing. Here's an example technical instant answer for the "Cortana" search term: 

Now that I'm working on support diagnostics and automated solutions again, I have been working with the Bing and content delivery teams to get some instant answers created with links to some of our automated solutions.

And I'm happy to announce that the first one is live! So you can now search for "Windows Update Troubleshooter" (or a variety of related terms and error messages) and the first result will be a technical instant answer with a link to download and run our automated troubleshooter to fix problems with Windows Update.

When you click the link in step 3, you will be prompted to open (or run) or save the troubleshooter.

Just click Open (or Run) to launch the troubleshooter.

The content delivery teams will be constantly adding more technical instant answers, and we hope to have more live with automated solutions soon!

Note that technical instant answers are also available in the Bing app on Windows Phone. To see the phone experience, tap Search and then type or say "cortana" on your Windows Phone. Then click the "See More" link at the bottom of the second result (after the ad - "Meet Cortana on Windows Phone 8.1") and swipe left or right to view the content on each of the tabs.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2014
  The link from the article www.bing.com/search shows regular search page without instant answer additions. Does it work as advertised?

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2014
  Thanks for the comment IL! I am investigating this issue with Bing and will post an update when it is resolved.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2014
  This issue is resolved IL, and the Windows Update Troubleshooter instant answer is back on Bing now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2014
  Hi iFiredog: The Instant Answer should appear after any paid ads, but for both the "cortana" and "windows update troubleshooter" search terms I am seeing the instant answers as the first result (no paid ads showing here). What market/location is Bing configured for on your end? As for your Fix it suggestion, send me the details via my contact form and I'll follow up with you via email.