What is up with Microsoft? Lately? WXPNews recently reported a “new” fix for a well-known memory leak in the tablet pc edition of Windows XP. Most tablet pc users know the longer you use it, the slower it gets. Some desktop owners have probably seen similar symptoms with their systems, but this “fix” is only for tablet pc users. Here is my problem with this fix and I’ll share the workaround further below.

On June 6, 2006, Microsoft sent out a “revised” knowledge based article announcing a fix for the memory leak present in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. I looked all over this new article, and it appears to me that the only update is a new requirement that users first call Microsoft support (at $35.00 per hour) to obtain the fix.

A Google search for “tablet PC memory leak” revealed a number of web links discussing a prior Microsoft article announcing what appears to be the same fix for the memory leak. This article was published July 5, 2005, a year ago. This article is also problematic because it came out right around the time that Microsoft started requiring people to re-validate their systems with the then newly introduced “Windows Genuine Advantage,” another anti-piracy shield by Microsoft which does nothing to stop software piracy and everything to annoy users. As I noted in a blog last week, Windows XP: Genuine Disadvantage, it’s yet another hoop created by Microsoft requiring that we prove we are the rightful owners of the “genuine” product before we get necessary updates and fixes which we’re entitled to anyway given that these updates are meant to patch security holes and other shortcomings in the original operating system.

Microsoft’s position in these knowledge base articles is reprehensible. Basically, Microsoft is prohibiting your access to a fix of their faulty operating system until you take some specific action that should not be required from you:

• Last year, you were instructed to first download and use Windows Genuine Advantage and re-validate your product key before getting the hotfix for the memory leak (an action that obligates you to first lower your Internet security to validate your product key);
• This year, you are directed to first call Microsoft support at $35 per hour so that support personnel can get whatever information they require before sending you the hotfix.

Microsoft continues to prove that greed, not quality, guides its customer support. It continues to present obstacles that are at a minimum ridiculous, and more often costly and time-consuming. I would have to be in absolute dire straights before I’d ever call anyone’s customer support. I can’t think of any reasonable justification for Microsoft to require its customers to call support for a downloadable fix. In the unlikely event there is a logical reason to essentially charge customers for the fix, Microsoft should provide a clear explanation in its knowledge base article.

It’s more likely, however, that Microsoft has lost interest in its tablet pc software line, which had been marketed primarily to businesses. It could be that charging for support (downloadable hotfixes) is merely a way to make more money in an essentially dead tablet pc market.

Well, luckily, some of the research and development guys at Microsoft maintain PR blogs. Last year TabBlogger, a test engineer at Microsoft who works on the tablet pc project, provided this blog with a direct download link to the hotfix for the memory leak. Hopefully, both the blog and link will remain available to tablet pc users who don’t feel like lowering their Internet security or paying customer support for this downloadable fix.

Obviously, I make no guarantees regarding this or any fix provided by Microsoft for its products. Let’s be realistic. Programming isn’t an exact science even in test environments where are the conditions are known and controlled. I do recognize that, despite their best efforts, the developers at Microsoft are faced with way too many variables to provide a completely clean and reliable program out of the box. It would be naive and even perhaps unfair to expect that.

What I don’t like is Microsoft’s continued antagonism of its paying customers by forcing validation and revalidation of its products, its ineffective end-user anti-piracy measures, and its recent brass in requiring people to call support for downloadable fixes. Frankly, if it can get away with charging for that, there isn’t much incentive for Microsoft to release bug-free software, is there?

If the link above for the memory leak hotfix is no longer live by the time you read this, do what I did to find the link in the first place: run an Internet search for “tablet pc memory leak.” You can avoid costly customer-service calls for many issues by running searches for errors and problems you encounter. That’s what I did.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 10:27 am and is filed under Microsoft Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.