LOL! The skills required by your handy hints probably exclude the vast majority of people who are converting. I'm very skilled with Windows and the Mac and frankly I couldn't execute the conversion.
How hard is it to walk through the Conversion Wizard and make some choices? If you couldn't do it then obviously you're not as skilled as you think you are! 
The use case for a Parallels VM conversion is quite different than the documented use case. If I am converting the Parallels VM, I want to create the Fusion VM on the same Mac. Once you uninstall the Parallels Tools, you have lost "connectivity" to the Mac. So you either need to establish a network connection to that Mac (which I would have to think about how to do) or have a second Windows machine (which is what I was trying to use). When I specificed the IP address, user name, and password of the WIndows machine, I got error messages. It seemed to be looking for some kind of special server. And sorry, but I had references to
.psf\Home\Desktop and
.psf\Home\Documents littered throughout the registry. I couldn't even load the converter until I got rid of those manually.IMHO registry hacking and a second computer shouldn't be a requirement to use the conversion program.
The installation issue when Shell Folders are pointing to non-local destinations is a well know issue with the Windows Installer in general and not necessarily specific to VMware products and I thought VMware had fixed it so it wouldn't need to be done manually however while it may be an inconvenience to have to edit the Registry it's just not that big a deal and certainly shouldn't be for one who thinks they are "very skilled with Windows".
As far as the destination for the converted Virtual Machine if you do not have Network Connectivity after you remove Parallels Tools or if you do but cannot figure it out with because you're not as "very skilled with Windows" as you though you were then you can hook a USB Drive to the Virtual Machine and if you don't have that then guess what... you don't need it and you don't need a 2nd computer physical or virtual either because if you'd put you're "very skilled with Windows" abilities to use you'd just temporarily add another virtual hard drive to the target Virtual Machine and use it as the destination and you can convert the target without any problem providing you have the necessary free space on the Host System to support what your doing in the Virtual Machine.
You can then reinstall Parallels Tools to regain network connectivity if it was lost in the first place and then transfer the converted Virtual Machine to the Host via the Network or use other available methods to copy/move it to the Host and then just delete the temporarily added vHDD when you're done.
Now how hard is that!?
Let me try another kick at the can here...
I've used Parallels since the beginning and have been reasonably happy with it. I upgraded to 4.0 right away because it looked like a very nice upgrade. Unfortunately it is super buggy and I couldn't use it. Someone in the Parallels forum said he'd converted his 3.0 VM easily using a VMWare utililty. So I thought I would give it a try,
I found that VMWare didn't have a conversion utility for Parallels 4.0 (no surprise). I didn't save my 3.0 VM (although I had a current Windows backup), so I was stuck. I tried to create a fresh Fusion VM with a minimal Windows install and then doing an image restore but it didn't work. I ran across the utility designed to convert a physical Windows machine to a Fusion VM, so I thought I would give it a try. It was advertised as "Easy as 1 2 3" (http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/importer_tool.html).
Here were the issues I ran into:
Documentation was oriented to physical Windows conversion only
No mention of uninstalling Parallels Tools before conversion
Converter wouldn't install because it couldn't find
.psf\Home\DesktopWhen I edited the registry to remove
.psf\Home\Desktop, it wouldn't install because it couldn't find
.psf\Home\Documents. I had to remove
.psf\Home\Documents in the registry. I'm not sure I did it correctly.I had a perfectly functioning connection to a share on a second PC. However when the program asked for a destination, it wouldn't recognize that share. I use
hostname\sharename,
hostname, and the IP address in turn (along with the username and password) and nothing worked
At this point I abandoned the procedure.
I'll let others decide how "easy" this was and/or how unskilled I was in the execution of the procedure. For me it wasn't easy. My opinion is that no conversion program should rely on the user editing the registry. Second, entering the network information should be similar to mapping a network drive. The user shouldn't have to know an IP address.
The procedure is not advertised as being usable for converting another VM into a Fusion VM. So this could all be academic. If either the documentation could be modified, the program modified, or both in order to allow unhappy 4.0 upgraders to switch to Fusuion, I think it would be well worth the effort.
I’ll be the first to admit that most of the time Documentation is never through or complete and in some cases flat out wrong or nonexistent however Documentation in the form of Help Files or User Manuals are not ones only resources and case in point… The product in question VMware Converter while it is the descendant of VMware P2V Assistant it certainly does more then just P2V and if one looks at the Manufactures Web Site and specifically the FAQ’s the very first question asks "What source machines does VMware Converter support for conversions?" states "VMware Converter supports conversions from sources such as physical machines, VMware and Microsoft virtual machine formats and certain 3rd party disk image formats." Note that it said "VMware and Microsoft virtual machine formats"!
Now this is where documentation is often wrong and in this case simple not up to date as in the second FAQ it doesn’t explicitly list Fusion Virtual Machines although it can be done with and in Fusion. This is where the Message Boards come in because as another form of documentation it offers a wealth of experience at one's fingertip. So when in doubt ask.
Anyway this weekend I had some time to install Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac and I had no problem with Parallels Tools uninstalled choosing a Network Resource as in a SMB Share on the Mac or other Shared Disks on my LAN as a destination for the converted Virtual Machine and also as I mentioned before one can temporarily add a second virtual hard drive to the target Virtual Machine and use it as the destination which is very handy if there is not another physical device other then the Host to work with.
The key to using VMware Converter in a Virtual Machine is to act as if you’re performing this process on a Physical Machine as you walk through the Conversion Wizard while making ones choices and in doing so one should not have any problems. Yes it would be nice if that one tidbit was in the documentation and while it has been mentioned many times before in this forum I think it might be hard to find on a search but that doesn’t stop one from asking a question in this forum or the VMware Converter forum.
As to the issue you ran into installing VMware Converter as a result of having changed a Default Location for a User Shell Folder that really is not VMware’s fault nor is it their responsibility to correct or account for it when it is the Windows Installer that is the problem and that’s on Microsoft not VMware and there are many other Manufactures products that will fail under the same circumstances and if having to modify a couple of Registry Key values is unreasonable or unacceptable then maybe one should consider not using a computer and get out the paper and sharpen up a couple #2 pencils.
I’m not trying to be a hard a__ however life isn’t prefect and everything can’t always just be as simple as drag and drop it in your Application folder or drag it to the Trash. Nice concepts however it sure has turned a lot of intelligent people into stupid computer user!
On an entirely different subject I have to say that I was very impressed with what has changed in Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac since I last use it 2 versions ago and it has VMware Fusion beat hands down in some areas. I’m not a typical consumer user type however and only speaking from the perspective of the Feature Set I’d stop using Fusion in a heart beat and use Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac over VMware Fusion 2.x if I was just a typical consumer user. It was unbelievable how much more robust the Feature Set of Parallels is over Fusion. I was more impressed with it then how I felt going from Fusion 1.x to 2.0.
However on a performance front that is a totally different story and I noticed it right from the word go just installing Windows XP Professional from a customized ISO Image where no user input is needed at all. It took 65 minutes for Parallels to install from this ISO that Fusion installs in 20 minutes. After the initial install and then performing the same tasks on each, Fusion had better response times and enough so for the tasks I preformed a stopwatch wasn’t necessary to see the difference.
Now I didn’t have a lot of time to play and I won’t have enough time in the 14 day trial period to use it however if VMware doesn’t implement some of the features that are available in Parallels UI that have to be done hacking files or is nonexistent at all in Fusion then when I have some time I was impress enough with the differences that I am going to take a serious look at this product early next year and if Parallels irons out the performance related issues I’m going to make the switch.
On an entirely different subject I have to say that I was very impressed with what has changed in Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac since I last use it 2 versions ago and it has VMware Fusion beat hands down in some areas. I’m not a typical consumer user type however and only speaking from the perspective of the Feature Set I’d stop using Fusion in a heart beat and use Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac over VMware Fusion 2.x if I was just a typical consumer user. It was unbelievable how much more robust the Feature Set of Parallels is over Fusion. I was more impressed with it then how I felt going from Fusion 1.x to 2.0.
However on a performance front that is a totally different story and I noticed it right from the word go just installing Windows XP Professional from a customized ISO Image where no user input is needed at all. It took 65 minutes for Parallels to install from this ISO that Fusion installs in 20 minutes. After the initial install and then performing the same tasks on each, Fusion had better response times and enough so for the tasks I preformed a stopwatch wasn’t necessary to see the difference.
Now I didn’t have a lot of time to play and I won’t have enough time in the 14 day trial period to use it however if VMware doesn’t implement some of the features that are available in Parallels UI that have to be done hacking files or is nonexistent at all in Fusion then when I have some time I was impress enough with the differences that I am going to take a serious look at this product early next year and if Parallels irons out the performance related issues I’m going to make the switch.
Woody,
What are the features in particular you would like to see?
Also, where do you believe they have Fusion beat hands down in particular?
Thanks,
Pat
Food for thought for WoodyZ:
You're obviously a great resource for this forum based on the number of posts I see by your name. And you obviously are not "the typical consumer user type". I have seen some of your posts for other people and I would like to make a suggestion for your consideration. As helpful as you try to be, you can come off as if you are calling people stupid who don't see things the way that you do. Adding a smiley face at the end of these implications doesn't change the underlying tone.
This is typical for user forums like this, unfortunately, and is one of my least favorite things about them. You rarely see people treat each other face-to-face with the level of condescention that occurs in the online world. Maybe I'm an idealist, but it would seem to me that the dictum "the only stupid question is the one that isn't asked" would be one of the primary dictums of a user forum. And second, I would hope that the intention of people who look at questions would be to help, not to condescend. And if you want to tell me that "dictums" isn't the plural of "dictum", go ahead...
Everything is easy once you know how to do it. I'd love to take a poll of this forum and find out how many people even think to use regedit when they run into a problem, never mind know how to search and where to make changes to positively correct a problem. If someone is told exactly which part of the registry to edit and exactly what changes to make, then of course regedit is simple and safe to use. But one false move and you're screwed... So I hold to the point of view that a good product should not require registry editing, period.
Fusion is a consumer product, as is Parallels. The target audience is far different than VMWare's original target audience which are developers, QA, and tech support. That user base could realistically be expected to go beyond point and click and in most cases have reasonable facility with things like the registry. But as a person who manages these functions in a software company, I don't want my people screwing around with making the tools work — I'm paying for the tools to help them do their work.
Parallels in particular needs their consumer-level user base to be successful with their product or they will be a niche company. The Mac is increasingly successful in the market in large part, IMHO, because there is a bridge to the Windows world. One of the huge aspects of that bridge is Microsoft Office, including Entourage. This of course doesn't require virualization. But for millions of users, Bootcamp, Parallels, and Fusion offer the best of both worlds and Apple is cleaning up accordingly. I simply can't believe that the folks at Parallels or VMWare expect their customers to be savvy about the registry or similar advanced knowledge of Windows in order to successfuly convert to and use their product. By definition if you use Parallels or Fusion, you have to use Windows so you have to put up with more crap than you do with OS X, but Parallels or Fusion shouldn't add to the problem by being buggy or not covering a wide range of user implementations of Windows.
Users do all sorts of things to their computers. That's what the "P" in "PC" stands for — "Personal". My mom or my sister or even I shouldn't need a system administrator to run my computer and keep it clean. The fact that there was a change to "a Default Location for a User Shell Folder" on my Parallels WIndows image was done under the covers by some some program that let me do it. If it happened to me, I'll bet it happened to others. There are a thousand other use cases where odd things might have happened. I maintain for an $80 consumer product, as many of these things need to be anticipated as possbile and handled transparently without the use of a #2 pencil or wise-cracking user forum expert. But when I visit a forum, I appreciate getting help but don't appreciate subtle remarks that I'm not as smart as I think I am.
I'm done with this discussion but I'll be happy to discuss whether vi or EMACS is better if you'd like...
And if you want to tell me that "dictums" isn't the plural of "dictum", go ahead...
My Latin is a bit rusty however I believe the plural of dictum is dicta.
So I hold to the point of view that a good product should not require registry editing, period.
Then you shouldn't be using Windows.
But as a person who manages these functions in a software company, I don't want my people screwing around with making the tools work — I'm paying for the tools to help them do their work.
Yes it's certainly nice to have all sorts of tools however failure to properly educate oneself on how to use a computer is no ones fault but their own and it is absolutely totally unrealistic to believe that everything is just going to work all the time just by pointing and clicking and if all you want if for your Users to be automatons then provide the proper technical expertise that is needed to function when using the tools of this industry and stop crying about it.
Users do all sorts of things to their computers. That's what the "P" in "PC" stands for — "Personal". My mom or my sister or even I shouldn't need a system administrator to run my computer and keep it clean. The fact that there was a change to "a Default Location for a User Shell Folder" on my Parallels WIndows image was done under the covers by some some program that let me do it. If it happened to me, I'll bet it happened to others. There are a thousand other use cases where odd things might have happened. I maintain for an $80 consumer product, as many of these things need to be anticipated as possbile and handled transparently without the use of a #2 pencil or wise-cracking user forum expert. But when I visit a forum, I appreciate getting help but don't appreciate subtle remarks that I'm not as smart as I think I am.
Hey if anyone doesn't know how to fix something then find someone that can fix it for you if you don't want to learn how to do it yourself. If you're going to wait around for the day when there are absolutely no issues or problems regardless of what the software cost then I'd image hell will freeze over before that day will come. I have seen the computer bring some highly educated and intelligent people to their knees and almost to the point of tears and at some point one just has to relinquish control and let someone else do it for them and that it the mark of an intelligent person!
What are the features in particular you would like to see?
Also, where do you believe they have Fusion beat hands down in particular?
Pat I knew you were going to ask that and this weekend I though about documenting everything and posting it however I just didn't have the time and really do not have the time now to document it in the manner I'd prefer although since you asked here’s some of it...
Normally I prefer to keep my Virtual Machines in the Sandbox and prefer accessing them just as I would any other Physical Machine on the LAN and that is why Fusion 1.x works better for me now then 2.0 and I just haven't had time to try 2.0.1. However in spite of my normal usage I do like to run a Windows Virtual Machine from time to time in Unity view without taking the time to get into all the details I'd like or even cover all the differences between features and setting aside what may or may not be consumer oriented or more for the advanced user or professional let me start with Unity...
With Coherence (in Fusion its Unity) the Parallels Application Icon on the OS X Dock changes to a Real Time Dynamic Windows Start Menu, wow I almost started salivating! There are other things surrounding Coherence that I liked and not that Unity doesn't do similar I liked the Parallels methodology better and time permitting I'll come back to this however having the Start Menu like that is big, really big! Kudos to Parallels for this feature!
When in Full Screen view I really really liked the fact that when I moved my mouse to the top of the screen that the Parallels menu bar didn't slide down and I can see during a PowerPoint Presentation that this is an absolute must have however just in general use it is extremely annoying to have the Fusion menu bar slide down because my mouse hit the top of the screen. (Now I'm salivating! ) Although I want the option to turn that on an off easily and I didn’t see that in Parallels and it appears to not be configurable however I’d settle for Parallels implementation over Fusion’s current method better to not be there at all then to play a annoying game of hide and seek.
When I created a Parallels Virtual Machine of Windows XP not only was an Alias automatically created on the Desktop but when I started the Virtual Machine a C Drive Icon to access the File System just like accessing the Macintosh HD was also created on the Desktop and does disappear when closing down the Virtual Machine. Not a big deal for me however this I think is good for the typical consumer user as it puts it in the same context as the Mac's HDD's or the normal behavior when mounting images on a Mac and that coupled with the Parallels Application Icon on the OS X Dock dynamically changing to a Real Time Dynamic Windows Start Menu when in Coherence really provides for a more positive User Experience especially for the Consumer User.
As I walked down through Configure (Settings in Fusion) this is where I found some things that got my attention and I had to get up and get a paper towel to wipe up the drool. Starting at the top under Options...
General A check box "Do not back up with Time Machine" (I'd like to see a Global Setting under the Application Preferences for that even though I know I can exclude in TM itself.)
Boot Order (WOW I though I going to pee in my pants! ) You mean I don't have to manually edit the Virtual Machine Configuration File to add what amounts to parameters not officially published by VMware in any sort of cohesive list because sometimes I'm just not fast enough to mouse-click into the Virtual Machine's Display and hit the Esc key to bring up the Boot Menu or press F2 to enter the BIOS. Sorry I digressed, anyway I can check/uncheck the Devices or easily change the order and if I have the global Show advanced settings check box checked I can also check the Select boot device on startup check box. For me this one feature alone gave me serious pause to consider switching and while this is probably really geared for more advanced users I can see when the average typical consumer user needs to boot a Virtual Machine from optical media or ISO Image to effect a repair etc that this makes it so easy for those that are totally frustrated by having to manually edit the Virtual Machine Configuration File to add what amounts to parameters not officially published by VMware in any sort of cohesive list because sometimes one is just not fast enough to mouse-click into the Virtual Machine's Display and hit the Esc key to bring up the Boot Menu or press F2 to enter the BIOS. Sorry I digressed again, however I find both Parallels and VMware wrong for not making what is by today’s industry standard's the optical drive as the primary boot device. Almost every Mainstream OS today from a Normal Consumer Users Environment is installed by Bootable Optical Media and as a first step to installing an OS on a System, Physical or Virtual, the User needs to boot the Optical Disc and subsequent needs are when repairing or data recovery necessitate the need to boot from Optical Media. At least in Parallels selecting which device to boot or in what order becomes a cake walk for the technically challenged and couldn't be more convenient for everyone in general.
Startup and Shutdown and the next one Optimizations Are so nice you'll just have to take a look for yourself. Aside from options not available in Fusion or from the Fusion UI the per Virtual Machine granular controls that are only Global in Fusion are a really nice touch for the more advanced users.
On to Features... (Still in Configure (Settings in Fusion))
Security The ability to regulate integration between the Virtual Machine and Host via a slider bar makes this a very nice feature for someone like me that likes keeping things in the Sand Box however for the Virtual Machines or times that I would like to integrate this make it nice when I can at the slide of the bar override other integration type settings.
Services Check boxes for Share Clipboard and Enable drag-and-drop how convenient. Oh it's convenient in Fusion too, just manually edit the vmx configuration file from that list of parameters readily available from the official comprehensive list published by VMware. Oh wait a minute VMware doesn't have an officially published list of all the possible configuration parameters supported in the vmx configuration file or for that matter the config or preferences files either. (VMware are you getting the message here? Publish an official list!)
Additionally under Services having a check box to Automatically grab and release the mouse pointer is very nice. What a pain to have to click first to set focus to the Virtual Machines Display before it will process and input. The extra clicks really do start to add up for the lack of this in Fusion. (Or is there something one can manually add to one of the configuration files? If there was an official comprehensive list I wouldn’t have to ask. )
Skipping Shared Folders, Shared Profile and Shared Application as the feature set appears to be the same although these three show under one pane in Fusion under Sharing I liked them being separated the way that were in Parallels but that's may be nothing more then a passing feeling at that moment and in either case wouldn’t sway me one way or the other.
SmartMount A very innovative feature and further adds to the transparentness of total integration between Host and Guest and another plus for the Consumer User.
SmartGuard (AutoProtect in Fusion) Has a check box Notify me before snapshot creation and while I didn't test it I'm assuming this allows one to cancel that particular snapshot when it occurs.
Both Parallels and VMware get a big fat F for not having a User Configurable Scheduler built into this feature. I wrote an AppleScript run by Cron for use in Fusion 1.x for someone that posted to the forum that wanted to schedule having an automatic snapshot taken and while not exactly the same since it only supported one snapshot at least it was configurable to a specific time/multiple times and I'm pretty sure many users would like to be able to schedule when snapshots are to be automatically taken. So how hard would it be to incorporate a User Configurable Scheduler built into SmartGuard and AutoProtect and have a timed self dismissing message box to enable the user to cancel that snapshot if its not convenient at that time or if the User is not here let it proceed as the timed self dismissing message box times out?
Internet Applications Didn't see any difference between Parallels and Fusion.
Coherence (Unity in Fusion) Another WOW... Some more nice features to have...
Appearance: Group all Coherence windows; Disable drop shadow; Do not minimize to Dock; Bring notification windows to front
Working area: Exclude Dock; Automatically relocate Windows taskbar; Use multiple displays; Show Windows system tray icons in the Mac menu bar
Modality Another WOW! Fusion just doesn't have it.
On to Hardware...
CPU With the Global Show advanced settings check box checked you can add System flags that will change the virtual machine system behavior.
Skipping Memory as the main difference isn't practical for the consumer user.
Video Very nice being able to adjust the amount of Video memory via a slider bar and has an check box option to Adjust the host computer's screen resolution in full screen. Let's see anything like this in Fusion is back to manually editing the Virtual Machines vmx configuration file.
Floppy Disk Another WOW! Booting from a Physical Device like a USB Floppy Drive. Big plus for the advanced user and Fusion just doesn't have it!
CD/DVD-ROM With the Global Show advanced settings check box checked... Another WOW! Being able to switch from IDE or SCSI and what bus location via a couple of radio buttons and a list box. Try doing that in Fusion, oh yeah wait a moment while I dig up the list of parameters for manually editing the Virtual Machines vmx configuration file. Which by the way for this particular device I have yet to see in any post I've read when someone it trying to make the CD/DVD SCSI and hasn't been able to that someone from VMware has done little more then point to continuum's website for the unofficial list of parameters that in some cases the person asking how to do it just never could. Why aren't things like this, at a minimum, in the VMware Fusion Help File!?
Hard Disk With the Global Show advanced settings check box checked you can change between IDE and SCSI and do this on a already installed system disk without any warning as to the consequences of doing this. Great way to get a BSOD Stop 7B Error. Well at least I found one thing I didn't like how it's implemented. Parallels need to address this issue.
Network Adapter Another WOW! Having the ability to choose what Host Network Adapter when using Bridged Ethernet and while not as robust as the possibilities when manually editing the boot.sh file none-the-less this is very handy and a step in the right direction and if DaveP hadn't written VM@Work Tokamak making advanced networking changes in Fusion would just be a big pain in the a__ and why VMware hasn't implemented the same level of control for this as in is Windows Workstation is just not acceptable!
Another great Network Adapter feature is the ability to Send the host's MAC address to DHCP server and this can be extremely handy with some Routers and ISP's. This could be another big plus for someone with that type of router or restrictions set by their ISP.
Sound Seemed to have more choices although I didn't investigate to deeply.
USB Controller* Hey Fusion offers greater control in that one can explicitly enable/disable USB 2.0 support. Parallels didn’t offer that.
Well that covers Configure (Settings in Fusion) and isn't all that I saw that had Wow Factor. As I walked down through the Parallels menu bar and the commands available and what they did and how implemented there was more Wow Factor going on. I like the fact that there was a separate Devices menu that in Fusion these show at the bottom of the Virtual Machines menu and while it's just a personal choice it's little things like this that add up and enable me to sway one way over the other when it comes down to the wire.
The ability to Clone and Clone to Template and Convert to Template on the Virtual Machines menu were more big pluses and are feature that Fusion just doesn't have and I'd would use if it did.
There were additional features on the Parallels Application menu when the Virtual Machine was running that were nice to have access to.
Another big plus was the only programs that showed up in the Windows Applications folder in the Virtual Machine Package were those that were opened while in Coherence and I assume from what I could tell the Fusion equivalent the Applications folder populates almost every executable that’s in the Windows folder tree some of which would typically never be used in a context menu’s open with scenario and although you can use the Populate command in Parallels that enumerates the programs and add to the Windows Applications folder it only does about two thirds of what Fusion does and Parallels is omitting most of those that wouldn't normally be accessed in a the context menu's open with command. Both Parallels and Fusion need to make improvements in this area and have some way of allowing greater user configuration and control over the impact of the implementation of this.
Well there is more that could be said and I just don't have any more time to deal with this now however I have been jolted by the differences and am going to take the time after the first of the year and seriously put the current versions of each through the paces.
For now because of the need to use Workstation and the portability that offers me with Fusion that is the main reason I would not make the switch however I can see how the missing features in Fusion compared to both Workstation and now Parallels has got my attention and so much so that I think I'm thankful that I don't have the time to deal with it right now but I have to say VMware better get it's act together with Fusion because I can see many good reasons to give Parallels a fair try.
The last thing I'll say about this for now is I like how Parallels Help File made use of multi-colored text and has more graphic images then the Fusion Help File and I think that while if doesn't respond as quickly while navigation through it as Fusion's the trade of in speed was worth what appeared to be a more informative layout or presentation of the information. This might sound strange but I'm one for walking the menus to see what commands are available and then going straight to the Help File in any application especially when I'm new to any given application and I expect to be able to get answers from it to the point that I don't have to go online to search Google or go to the Forums and I say that it's obvious that VMware doesn't add nearly enough to the Help Files when it has one of the greatest resources to figure out what should be in there and that's some of the questions being asked right here in the forums. Although to be fair it a good thing there is Google and Forums in general because it seems no ones help files cover it all and what it doesn’t can usually be easy enough to find in the Forums.
WoodyZ