Microsoft shows that it does not really care about user feedback

[vissha]

Susan Bradley's open letter to Microsoft gets a non-response from Microsoft that shows that the company is not really interested in feedback.

 

Susan Bradley, a well known Windows administrator and contributor on various forums and sites including Patch Management, wrote an open letter recently to Microsoft in which she summarized results of a Windows survey on update quality and releases in general.

 

Users had to answer five simple questions using a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 meaning "very much not satisfied" and 5 meaning "very satisfied".

 

The questions were:

1. Satisfaction with Microsoft patching (overall Windows 7 to Windows 10).
2. Satisfaction with the quality of Windows 10 updates.
3. Windows 10 feature updates useful to business needs.
4. The cadence of feature releases.
5. Is Microsoft meeting business needs with Windows 10.

Susan asked an open-ended question as well in which participants could provide their opinion on what needed to change to make Windows 10 better for business.

 

Survey results indicate that many users who filled out the survey are not satisfied with the current quality of updates, patch releases and general update behavior. Almost 70% of respondents stated that they were not satisfied with the quality of update releases.

 

Susan mentioned that 47 of the updates that Microsoft released in July 2018 had known issues associated with them, some of them very serious such as "stop issues".

Windows patching issues

 

She identified several underlying issues; first, that relying solely on Insiders to test releases before release to the stable population is not sufficient in regards to quality control as July 2018 and previous months have shown.

When your own products break with these releases, it is clear that current testing processes are not good enough.

We reported on this in the past as well, e.g.here and here.

Second, that the two feature releases per year cause "patch fatigue".

The operating system needs to do a better job of communicating to the end user and especially to the patching administrator when a machine will receive an update. The addition of the Windows Update for Business settings that often conflict with other group policy settings cause confusion, not clarity.

See, too many Windows 10 feature updates for our take on this.

Third, that patch communication needed a lot of work.

Starting in January of this year with the release of Spectre/Meltdown patches, there have been numerous instances where patching communication has been wrong, registry entries detailed in Knowledge Base articles regarding registry key application was initially incorrect and later updated, or vendor updates had to be stopped and in general patching communication has been lacking.

We mentioned a lack of communication as well previously, for instance, when Microsoft published support pages after releasing updates.

 

Microsoft responded to Susan Bradley's open letter twice. The first response was just an acknowledgement that the letter has been received by the company. A Customer Relationship Manager stated in it that Microsoft was "working on finding the best venue to bring your concerns to our leadership team who would be better equipped in making any decisions that need to be made".

 

The second letter, again sent by the same Customer Relationship Manager, is a non-saying letter that shows that Microsoft has no intention to follow-up on the described problems.

 

Microsoft does not address any of the concerns brought forward. The paragraphs look like a copy and paste job that talk about Windows 10 updates in general and how it is different from previous versions.

 

Microsoft then asks Susan Bradley to leave feedback using the Feedback Hub (which she did three months ago but with little success).

Your letter clearly states the concerns that you have due to the quality and timing of Microsoft updates. I would like to add that with Windows 10 Microsoft decided to be more proactive. This has always been the way we keep commercial versions of Windows on the market current. There are also bug fixes. These updates can be vital. The Windows software environment and its associated hardware is incredibly complex. When these bugs are fixed, updates have to be issued to move them out to users. You want these updates to make sure everything works as expected. Windows 10 is very different from earlier versions of Windows. Earlier versions of Windows consisted of a single product which was updated over time. Windows 10 consists entirely of a base install and then fluid updates. The updates aren't add-ons from which to pick and choose but are part of the operating system.

I have provided a link below to our Feedback Hub. In the future you could use the link to provide feedback and share your suggestions or comments on issues with Windows products.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/feedback-hub/9nblggh4r32n?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab

Again, thank you for all the feedback. Is there anything else I can do to help? Did you have any other questions or concerns you wanted to discuss? If there are none I will go ahead and close out of your service request.

The response is corporate-speak for "thanks, but no thanks". It is almost insulting and in my opinion worse than having not responded at all to the open letter.

 

Now You: What's your take on this?

 

Source

 

PS: This is the reality of MS. I hope Win 10 users who upgraded would finally understand the Micro$h*t, Sh*tty Nudella its team & devs.

[abxccd]

I've also found the recent releases of Windows 10 to be not very reliable. After upgrading to the latest version (1804), there were a few junk entries in the start menu that could not be removed. They are still around 4 months later. I am hoping this is something they will fix in the next release.

[masterupc]

Really?
You're lying! ??

Feedback is used to chase away competitors (as AV/FW, Backup SW, etc).

Is the best way to maintain hegemony... of a shitty product.

[pc71520]

IF M$ had listened to the users' Feedback,

Windows 10, Edge etc.

would Not have been such a MESS.

[gone]

Never ever listen to customer that's the corporate motto.

if apple listens every other customers feedback i am sure it would have not be a 1 trillion company.

windows 10 is a mess like vista which can be cleaned up only by making  something equal to windows 7.

[Karlston]

Woody's take on Microsoft's deplorable DGAS...

 

Windows updaters express frustrations. Microsoft responds. (Computerworld - Woody Leonhard)

 

Perhaps if Microsoft replaced Nadella with Cortana, they'd start to really listen..

[mkc21]

wait till they increase their prices by 10% to push everyone into buying 365-like-subscriptions for w10.x

 

this is still the same company that liked to Embrace, Extend & Extinguish.

[Karlston]

Susan Bradley has replied to Microsoft's insipid clueless response...

 

Patch Lady – my response (AskWoody - Susan Bradley)

[csmdew]

On 8/4/2018 at 5:49 AM, abxccd said:

I've also found the recent releases of Windows 10 to be not very reliable. After upgrading to the latest version (1804), there were a few junk entries in the start menu that could not be removed. They are still around 4 months later. I am hoping this is something they will fix in the next release.

What are they; identify so all of the ppl that don't have real problems can have something to look for, thanks.

[BimBamSmash]

They do listen. There are plenty of features in Windows that will have been different for sure if it wasn't for user input. But let's not forget that as a corporation they have their own ulterior motives and nothing that pushes those aside will ever be taken into consideration. Else, you'd wonder why Windows 10 still calls home despite all the... user feedback.

[vissha]

19 minutes ago, BimBamSmash said:

They do listen. There are plenty of features in Windows that will have been different for sure if it wasn't for user input. But let's not forget that as a corporation they have their own ulterior motives and nothing that pushes those aside will ever be taken into consideration. Else, you'd wonder why Windows 10 still calls home despite all the... user feedback.

Did home/pro/ent users ask for changes to Win 7 UI to scrambled Win 8/8.1/10 UI? I don't agree. Ballmer accepted a request from one team member and all crap happened as Win 8. Due to lot of pressure and loss, Ballmer agreed to revert back most lost features and Win 8.1 arrived. Again $h*tty Nudella spoiled with Win 10 and ruined peaceful Windows users lives.

 

3 minutes ago, BimBamSmash said:

As I said, they have been listening and implementing things users ask for in Windows lately. But they only do so for little things. The bigger picture is not up for negotiation from their side.

The reason is they are going behind Big Data and Big Data needs more analytics, telemetry. spying/snooping/peeping work. They try to change most users lifestyle with their crappy changes which makes users as puppets in future. Google is best example. Many don't like to get away and support/contribute even aware of tracking/controversial practices of Google.

 

Also, don't argue with me since I'm bored/done with MS $h*tty arguments here. If you still wanna argue, then @steven36 knows better and reveals details that make u evade from MS instantly.
FYI: I'm one of the best predictors of MS/Google/any snooping tech cos.

[BimBamSmash]

You make a valid point there but if it is a response to my previous post, I don't think it is relevant to what I said.

 

As I said, they have been listening and implementing things users ask for in Windows lately. But they only do so for little things. The bigger picture is not up for negotiation from their side.