Microsoft pulls agents from Windows 7, 8.1 and other forums

[debebee]

Microsoft pulls agents from Windows 7, 8.1 and other forums

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/06/11/microsoft-pulls-agents-from-windows-7-8-1-and-other-forums/

by Martin Brinkmann on June 11, 2018 in Microsoft - Last Update: June 11, 2018 - 6 comments

Microsoft announced on Friday that Microsoft Community forum support will be discontinued for several company products including Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Microsoft's Answers Community is operated by Microsoft. It has forums for many Microsoft products and Microsoft employees a number of agents, usually third-party contractors, who interact with users who post on the forum.

While the forums are more miss than hit usually when it comes to finding help, they are certainly very popular as lots of users post there on a daily basis.

If you research a Windows or Microsoft product issue using your favorite search engine, you usually get Microsoft Answers results in the top ten listing. The quality of Microsoft Agent support is not always the best, however, as you will get copy and paste responses often at first.

Microsoft won't offer technical support anymore in the following forums starting July 2018:

• Windows 7, 8.1, 8.1 RT
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Internet Explorer 10
• Office 2010, 2013
• Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface RT, Surface 2
• Microsoft Band – this topic will be locked.
• Mobile devices forum – Microsoft support will continue in "Other Windows mobile devices" topic
• Zune – this topic will be locked.

The forums will remain available online and community members can still use the forums to post new topics or replies (with the exception of those that are locked in July 2018). Microsoft agents will still moderate the forums to remove spam and other undesirable messages from the forums but they won't interact with users anymore when it comes to providing technical support.

The company notes that "there will be no proactive reviews, monitoring, answering or answer marking of questions".

It is interesting to note that another Microsoft support agent posted a similar announcement in the Windows 8.1 forum highlighting that Microsoft would so for products that "reached end of support".

Please be advised that effective July 2018, the forum topics for products that reached end of support will no longer receive technical support from Microsoft agents.

The products listed on that page are Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT; all three products are still supported (albeit in extended support).  Windows 7 exited mainstream support in 2015, Windows 8.1 in January 2018.

It is unclear if Microsoft's wording is off as Microsoft could mean "extended support" instead of just "support". Extended support includes paid support and security updates at no additional cost only, and that is what Microsoft could have meant.

Closing words

Microsoft surely has a plan for 2020 when Windows 7 support ends and it may be the case that the company plans to push users even more towards Windows 10 by ending forum support in July 2018 already.

The forum is a hit and miss for support topics, mostly miss, in my opinion. While it does offer help for some issues, users who post there got canned responses usually that most of the time did not help at all.

[debebee]

It kind of sucks that PEOPLE PAID HARD EARNED CASHED FOR LEGAL OS and SOFTWARE  are cheated out of their deserve support just to promote a product that MS want you to buy all over again.. 

Its DOUBLE KILL

[Matrix]

Sad but true that's how M$ roll these days 

[Skunk1966]

the www is filled with knowledge about their products so who needs M$

[vitorio]

1 hour ago, Skunk1966 said:

the www is filled with knowledge about their products so who needs M$

.That's the way to treat greedy companies.

[dhjohns]

I don't blame them for not wanting to waste their time on old, ancient products.  People should have moved on a while back.  The upgrade is free.

[vissha]

18 minutes ago, dhjohns said:

I don't blame them for not wanting to waste their time on old, ancient products.  People should have moved on a while back.  The upgrade is free.

Funny... from good to bad with bloat, spy, data eating, mostly boot issues after every update all over the world. Also, frequent changes in strategy, even if upgrade free, it doesn't allow many old devices for new build of Win 10. I think u r unaware of these stuff and if u r aware, then u are just the slave to MS as many MS devs are in promoting anger/problems to old MS fans with their updates.
FYI: Many old MS fans using earlier versions (Win XP/Vista/7/8/8.1) after botched/spy updates and accidental/novice Windows 10 users already UPGRADED to Linux/Mac or rolled back to last used OS with block techniques.

[dhjohns]

I have been using Windows 10 since first beta.  There is no bloat, there is no data eating, and there is no spying.  If you think there is spying check the definition, and you will realize there is not any.  All these terms are used by technology-backward conspiracy theorists who wish to remain stuck in the past.  The future of computers is inter-connectivity with not only other devices, but with the supplier of the software so issues can be dealt with expediently.  Gone are the days of isolation where the user may wait months for a fix.  In the case of Windows, Microsoft would know of these issues quickly, and fix them rapidly.  Also, it is a pipe dream to expect that older computers will continue to support  newer, more modern operating systems.  This has never been the case, and is not the case now.  I am not a slave to anyone including Microsoft, and I do call them on issues.  But, we must never, ever not accept change.  We do not live in 2007 anymore.  This is 2018, and we can not, and should not expect things to be the same.  The only thing which is permanent in this world is change.  Now, perhaps you may laugh, call me crazy, or just think all this bull crap, but it is not.  You can think what you will.  This is what I think.

[humble3d]

So, how many have lost jobs in the last year as msft continues to cut costs and boost profits ??

[dhjohns]

2 minutes ago, humble3d said:

So, how many have lost jobs in the last year as msft continues to cut costs and boost profits ??

Cutting costs, and boosting profits is a bad thing?  Not from my studies of business, and economics.

[DKT27]

While I agree with some things, people should remember, some of the fixes for some of the problems can be only be found on that site. I know, finding actual fix on it has one in ten chance, but some of it can only be found on it, not anywhere else. Lets hope the community takes over the efforts and keep them working there.

[vissha]

16 minutes ago, DKT27 said:

While I agree with some things, people should remember, some of the fixes for some of the problems can be only be found on that site. I know, finding actual fix on it has one in ten chance, but some of it can only be found on it, not anywhere else. Lets hope the community takes over the efforts and keep them working there.

Yes, but when MS do this, most good old devs/helpers/solvers would move to other support sites for their work to the old MS fans.

[steven36]

I been using Windows since 2001 started out on Windows ME  and even back when i was a noob. i never signed into the Microsoft for any help i just called my computer vendor or took it to the shop  and before I ever came on the forums i was already fixing my own .

 

Now that I use Linux it would be no way id ask them  how to fix my install of Windows 8.1  I would stop using windows if i ever needed there help  this is the way I roll now .

 

 

 

[Rekkio]

One more reason to pirate Windows 7 & Office 2010

 

If you want to use Microsoft software without issues:

 

Look for the Enterprise versions.

 

When I started using Windows 7 Enterprise, I thought it wouldn't change much but I was wrong:

 

I've so far never run into any issues with it - no Internet issues, no Registry problem, etc.

 

If you want to e.g. use Windows 10, look for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB so you won't run into issues everyday.

 

The LTSB version is the biggest Corporate edition you can get for Windows 10.

 

You can also do this for non-MS software:

 

Always look for the biggest edition: usually Corporate or Enterprise. You'll notice the change

 

 

[BimBamSmash]

It is no surprise to see love for Linux every time MS announces something like this. I am big fan of the platform myself (and a huge critic of their UI's. Seriously, no creative minds in the open source community?)

But I don't think any of this could incentivize a migration. Fixing a Linux box can induce major headache of its own - far worse than Windows - especially when things root in kernel bugs and all that. And the Linux community seemingly assumes their audience are all computer geeks and programing gurus - no way can the average computer user make sense of their guidelines and help. :-P

 

Regardless, I have wanted to switch to Linux for long and the only reason I haven't is because I keep that old PC at home to run games only. Dual booting is not my thing, and some of these titles either just don't behave well on Linux (particularly those that rely on Physx, like Mass Effect trilogy). Others I have not been able to get to work at all (Sims 2 quickly comes to mind). If I can ever figure out how I am going to get these games to work on Linux without hiccups I sure will move and never look back.