Despite receiving high marks for having few flaws in the public beta test of Windows 7 so far, some testers have run into a thorny problem with a bug reporting tool that causes the system to crash randomly.
The good news is that several savvy bloggers, as well as Microsoft itself, have come up with workarounds to fix the problem.
Reports initially surfaced on the All About Microsoft blog on Monday. Blogger Mary Jo Foley reported that other bloggers had already identified the problem and come up with a workaround for the glitch, which is caused by a buggy reporting mechanism in Windows 7 called the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) client.
Random system crashes result when some testers try to use Windows Update or to install software using the MSI installer – originally called the Microsoft Installer but later renamed the Windows Installer.
The purpose of the CEIP client is to provide Microsoft with quality assurance data used to help spot and fix design errors in the user’s experience. As such, the CEIP client can provide useful information to Microsoft developers.
“An issue related to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP also known as SQM) [or Software Quality Management] client in the Windows 7 Beta is causing crashes of [Internet] Explorer, MSI-based installers and other applications,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com.
Microsoft’s official workaround uses a script to change the PC’s registry settings for CEIP.
“This script will stop crashes related to CEIP and removes those changes (registry keys) to prevent further CEIP related crashes,” the e-mail continued. “New machines installing Windows 7 Beta will not experience this problem.”
One blogger, Chris Holmes, posted a screen shot of Microsoft’s workaround.
“CEIP is one of Microsoft’s biggest avenues for feedback in betas especially [so] you may want to turn it back on. Although turning it back on may cause the issue to come back periodically,” Holmes said in his post.
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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”
