First: We get paid more than $5 an hour. Second: What happens when you call in asking for this hotfix is you are routed to the "front line" to troubleshoot your issue. If the hotfix is warrrented, it is sent out to you and your case is marked as a BUG. A level two support person(read: someone who knows what they are talking about) calls you back over the next couple of days and makes sure the hotfix worked for you and to gather information about your system in an effort to determine what is causing this issue. If all you get is the hotfix and some follow up, you are not charged and your case does not count against one of your two free incidences. If the troubleshooting determines it is something else causing your issue, you are charged. That is most likely why you see the wording you do. Microsoft is covering their own *ss. They could put it up for public download, but they are still doing some testing. From experience, I've found that a "hotfix" only applies in about 30% of the cases that think they need it. Usually, something else is going on. If the black box testers at internal Microsoft determine that this is a BUG, after extensive testing, it will be issued on the Windows Update site for public download as soon as they know it will not mess with any of the other programming in the OS(read: more trouble than it's worth). Third: With ME, 2000, and XP you only get two free incidences. After that you pay on ALL the platforms. If you are using a home OS (ME, 9x, XP home edition) it is $35. If you are using a prfessional OS (Windows 2000, XP Pro), it is $245. But the Pro "monkeys" tend to know what they are doing a little more than the $35 "monkeys" and are less likely to suggest a format to fix your problem.

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Funny, We bought xp pro and 50 licenses and they wanted to charge us anyway.No offer of free help of any kind whatsoever. None, nada, zip. Pay to play was the message we got, and we got it loud and clear. I guess its all in who you get when you call. In all fairness we have had some excellent experiences with MS Tech support, this was just not one of them. It was the first attempt for XP support too BTW. Post the fix(although we found it on our own eventually anyway). I think we are big boys and will chance that the possible fix wont make a built in flaw any worse. "If they determine its a bug they will issue a fix". Did they get psychic message that it may be or did they realize it got past the hardcore pros in the extensive R&D dept? Perhaps it was the other zillion saps who paid their $$ to let them know it was a flaw. Ya think? I'm not picking on you and I CERTAINLY wish no hard feelings between us. I support people every day just like you and have for years(different field)but information hoarding is surely not the answer whatever the rationalle. Jimi_l

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I wrote and asked for their "memory leak" fix. They made me beg and jump through hoops before they gave it to me. It took many, many emails over about two weeks. They didn't charge me for it, and if I remember correctly, they weren't going to charge it against my two freebies. Aha! newgrl, you work for MS?

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payed more than $5 an hour? i knew i was getting shortchanged! i guess the theory of mcdonalds secret sauce 101 was a wasted year.

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