Work is the curse of the drinking classes - Oscar Wilde
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Microsoft blames high contrast screens for Hotmail failure
A BOTCHED major update to Microsoft's Hotmail service after months of planning has left the company floundering as it tries to come up with solutions and clutching at excuses.
The Vole had proudly announced that it finally managed to shift all its accounts over to the new Hotmail service, but it didn't take long for users to start complaining. While our readers commented that it was "the all time worst update in history", others resorted to Microsoft's Hotmail forums to vent their frustrations.
Rather than doing what it could to solve the problems, the hapless Vole came up with laughable 'fixes' to major functionality problems. There was the usual 'we are aware of the issue' stalling followed by potential fixes from the software gurus at Redmond.
Answering the question, "I am having difficulty sending mail since being upgraded to the new Hotmail," a Microsoft employee blamed it on users' display settings saying, "If you are using high Contrast display mode in Windows, you may have difficulty sending mail." Ah yes, that often missed link between Windows' display mode and the functionality of its network and web-based email services, shame on you for not realising that before.
Apparently "older browsers" such as Safari 3 or Firefox 2.5 can also cause problems, yet Microsoft says that Internet Explorer 6 is supported by Hotmail. For reference, IE 6 is almost nine years old whereas the first version of Firefox came out in November of 2004. Still, who's counting the years, eh?
Perhaps most surprising of all is Microsoft's suggestion that mobile broadband users should ditch Internet Exploder and use Google's Chrome browser. That's probably the best advice that the Vole has given in years.
Microsoft also admits that a script executed by Hotmail causes browsers to run slowly. Apparently the slowdown is due to "running Messenger on the web in combination with a few other variables". Until Microsoft can release a fix, it recommends that users sign out of Messenger.
These pseudo fixes have left many Hotmail users irate, with numerous forum posts apparently having been deleted. One wrote, "We are now on week 3 and I still cannot read/send email." Another was somewhat more insistant in their criticism saying, "FIX ALL BUGS THAT HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED IN WAVE4 and provide us customers with some feedback and status (instead of excuses)." Others complained that Microsoft was censoring its forums by deleting critical posts.
Given the obvious problems, one wonders how little testing Microsoft did before rolling out such a large update on a high profile service such as Hotmail. Not only are the answers shocking in their sheer stupidity, but they serve to highlight once again the appalling lack of quality evident in the software that Microsoft puts out. µ
Tags: Microsoft
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Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, so I'll connect the dots. The "TRUST" MS has with hardware companies is simply this: we'll find new & creative ways to make our operating system environments run SLOWER so that consumers will need to continuously upgrade their HARDWARE. This reason explains why -better than all others - why every "Service Pack" brings with it a disproportionate DECREASE in system performance.
I haven't been to the Hotmail website for years, though my Hotmail is my main email address.
I switched over the Thunderbird as my email client many years ago, and with FreePops I am able to use my Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Google mail, etc, without ever opening a browser.
Too easy...
It was better for everyone that microsoft keep the old version and have an option for new one. But as the history repeats itself they done what yahoo did once.
For those who say there was a upgrade option for a long time then that's shame an old update could cause this amount of problems.
I don't get it when some people say you can't complain when you use free software like hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc!
Those services are not for free, yes you don't actually pay money, but you do pay, by allowing them to index everything in your mailbox and use it to target you with advertising, which is where they get their money. So, stop with the can't complain when its free! now if it is a software you download like Picasa for example then that's a different story.... The moral of this story? Free is not just money related...
Do you seriously believe that M$ are in the business of giving people free stuff? Of course not! They want you to use Hotmail because they can then sell you to advertisers - thats right, chumps: *you* are the service!
So. If M$ want us to use Hotmail, it had better work, and work reliably. Or we will all sell our souls to some *other* huge corporation for the electronic equivalent of a handful of beads.
When, oh when will people learn?
If only they had switched over to Gmail like oh say, EVERY technically-inclined person on the planet has already done, they wouldn't be having these issues.
Why anyone would stick with anything other than Gmail is beyond me.
Why is this a surprise? When you use a Microsoft product, *any* Microsoft product, you are using a half-baked and bug riddled crapware. You are their unpaid beta tester, and you are paying them for that privilege. Microsoft products are a joke.
Mitch, anyone has the right to complain. Demand anything be done regarding a free service though, naw, I'm with you on that point.
No matter a free service or not, if you want customers that are happy, basic standards and quality are a very good idea.
Nobody has the right to complain about this apart from the people who have paid-for hotmail accounts. If you subscribe to a free service, be prepared for it to vanish with a moments notice.
Besides, anyone who hasnt been using the new version for a matter of years is GOING TO HAVE simple issues. The option to update has been around for ages.