UI Reporting Bug Causes Windows 7 Crashes - Page 2

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Limiting useful feedback

Another blogger, Bryant Zadegan, criticized Microsoft for, not only letting the bug slip through, in a post to the AeroXperience blog site, but also complained that disabling the tool limits feedback that Microsoft’s developers need.

"Sure, this is a beta, and as such, it’s acceptable for just about anything to be slightly unstable. However … stability is expected if not demanded in the reporting tools," Zadegan's post said.

At least one analyst agrees.

"The blogger [Zadegan] is correct that one thing you don't want is problems with the beta [reporting] tools," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told InternetNews.com. Still, he attributed the problems to the fact that it's a beta.

"As we get into March we should see things like this fixed … if they don't, Windows 7 might be late," Enderle added.

Microsoft has not said how many users have joined the public beta test of Windows 7 so far. The public beta started on January 11, after being stalled for a day by unanticipated heavy demand on its download servers.

Microsoft initially had limited the beta test to 2.5 million users, which Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, told InternetNews.com earlier this month would be the largest Windows beta test ever.

However, with the explosive demand for the beta, Microsoft lifted the limit for now.

Beyond the slow kick off, though, most users have given the public beta a thumbs up in terms of performance, stability, and reliability. After Windows Vista's spotty sales numbers over the past two years, Microsoft has pinned its hopes for continued Windows dominance on Windows 7.

Because this particular bug is in part of the debugging software, it is not expected to hold up commercial delivery of Windows 7, which Microsoft officials have steadfastly said will ship within three years of Vista's January 30, 2007 consumer launch.

Many observers, though, look for Microsoft to deliver the final code sometime in late spring or early summer – in time to make it onto new PCs sold during the holiday sales season, and possibly even ready for late summer back-to-school sales.

Microsoft's workaround for the CEIP client issue:

1. Select and copy the following to your clipboard:

reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftSQMClientWindowsDisabledSessions /va /f

2. Click on "Start", then "All Programs", then "Accessories"

3. Right click on "Command Prompt", then click on "Run as administrator"

4. In the UAC prompt, verify that the program’s name is "Windows Command Processor" and then click "Yes"

5. Right click on the "Administrator: Command Prompt" window’s black area, then select "Paste" 6. Press "Enter", you should see “The operation completed successfully”. If you see “ERROR: Access is denied”, please make sure you followed Step 3.

7. Close the "Administrator: Command Prompt window"