Feedback, which the MS Email people do not pass on

[Guest]

I't sad that feedback has to be this difficult; te meat is at the bottom:

Hello David,

Thank you for writing back.

Windows Defender program is still in the beta phase of development, and
mainstream technical support is currently not available. The best way to
submit your feedback and suggestion is through newsgroups. Our expert and
developers will review your suggestion regarding Windows Defender.

Your feedback is very important in helping us develop an excellent product
for our customers. I very much appreciate your ideas about improving our
product.

If you have other questions, please do not hesitate to write back.

Thank you,

Goldie
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about Online Customer Service experience please
e-mail my manager, Jewelle Carlos, at (e-mail address removed)

-----Original Message-----
From: (e-mail address removed) ([email protected])
Date: Monday, May 29, 2006 05:44 PM
To: (e-mail address removed) ([email protected])
Cc: (e-mail address removed) ([email protected])
Subject: Re: defender shortfalls

Calvin,

So, are you saying you are discarding my expert, professional feedback and
constructive suggestions because you feel I came in the wrong door, that you
are not feeling empowered to forward them to an appropriate development team?
I don't think there is any room for discussion about 'you threw it away,
left it out, why?' If I cannot find these things quickly after 39 years in
computing, maybe they are missing or in the wrong place! A security tool
should be able to give me the secure feeling that it has been securing things
as I asked.

I used to work service, and my bass said "Never tell someone where to go,
and hang up. Find the right party and forward the call yourself. You can
tell them the best place for such calls in the future. Often, customers get
the run-around, as one says call here, the next says call there, and the
third says call the first.

Best regards,

David

____________________________________
In a message dated 5/28/2006 2:38:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
(e-mail address removed) writes:
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.

I understand that it is difficult to tell if Microsoft Windows Defender
(Beta 2) is attending to its tasks, as there are no history of update checks
and applied, no date and time on the current version, no history of scans
started and finished. We apologize for this inconvenience.

For questions and issues on Windows Defender (Beta 2), we highly recommend
to submit them through the Windows Defender newsgroups to discuss it with
software developers and beta testers. You may access the newsgroups at
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/newsgroups/default.mspx

In addition, Frequently Asked Questions about the Windows Defender (Beta 2)
are available at
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/faq.mspx

Should you have other concerns, please let me know by writing back to this
e-mail.

Thank you,

Calvin
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience,
please e-mail my manager, Dave Escasa, at (e-mail address removed).



-----Original Message-----
From: (e-mail address removed) ([email protected])
Date: Saturday, May 27, 2006 02:43 PM
To: CS ([email protected])
Subject: defender shortfalls


---
CUSTOMER PROVIDED SYSTEM PROPERTIES
Country/Region: United States
---
SYSTEM PROPERTIES
Ref URL: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contactusSecHome
O/S: windows nt 5.1
O/S Lang: en-us
Br: msie 6.0
Br lang: en-us
---
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Message: Defender is very nice, but it is hard to tell it is doing anything:
no history of update checks and updates applied, no date-time on the current
version, no history of scans started, finished with summary results. This is
really sad, as there is an history screen. I discovered I was getting quick
scans when I wanted full only by reviewing all my settings. I have no idea
if it is picking up updates, and I found the 'check for updates' button on
the 'about' screen, only by chance. This seems a step backwards from beta 1!

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Defender is very nice, but it is hard to tell it is doing anything:
no history of update checks and updates applied, no date-time on the
current
version, no history of scans started, finished with summary results. This
is
really sad, as there is an history screen. I discovered I was getting
quick
scans when I wanted full only by reviewing all my settings. I have no
idea
if it is picking up updates, and I found the 'check for updates' button on
the 'about' screen, only by chance. This seems a step backwards from beta
1!

Beta2 is very different from beta1 in a number of aspects. I'll comment,
but bear in mind that this is a peer support forum--so I'm not speaking for
Microsoft. There are some Microsoft folks who post here sometimes, but such
responses are relatively rare. Microsoft does read these groups with some
care, though--your feedback does get heard, and concrete changes are made
based on it--for example, the optional ability to have the Windows Defender
icon show in the notification area, even when no user interaction is
needed--is one such change.

At the bottom of the home page of Windows Defender the day and time of the
last scan, and the type of scan, are shown.
In the last line of that page, the definition version and its creation date
are shown--this is a rough guide to whether you are up to date--the program
will let you know, by way of the icon in the notification area, if you are
substantially out of date.

Updates are via AutoUpdate, so there's no user interaction required for
many.

The history screen will only show actions taken--it doesn't record scans
which don't result in any cleaning action needed.

Take some time to check out Tools, Options--remember to use the scroll bar
to scroll down.

I'd recommend to everyone (myself included)--reading the help. This is one
aspect of the program which definitely can be changed--so if there's info
that is needed, or is unclear or misleading--now's the time to speak up
about it.

The help recommends a daily quick scan, with a full scan if anything is
found, as I recall. I'd like to echo this recommendation--unless your
machine is new and powerful, or you let the scan happen in off hours at
night. Full scans are quite resource intensive and may impact other uses of
the computer, even though they are completely in the background.

"hard to tell it is doing anything" is, in fact, something of a complement
to the team, I think. That's part of the aim--this is not the techies "in
your face," swiss army knife anti-spyware app--it is one which "just works."
It can reside on the machine with very little care and feeding, but which
has quite powerful detection and cleaning capabilities, and a user interface
easily understood and able to be modified for the many languages Windows is
available in.

 

[Rick Merrill]

Beta2 is very different from beta1 in a number of aspects. I'll comment,
but bear in mind that this is a peer support forum--so I'm not speaking for
Microsoft. There are some Microsoft folks who post here sometimes, but such
responses are relatively rare. Microsoft does read these groups with some
care, though--your feedback does get heard, and concrete changes are made
based on it--for example, the optional ability to have the Windows Defender
icon show in the notification area, even when no user interaction is
needed--is one such change.

At the bottom of the home page of Windows Defender the day and time of the
last scan, and the type of scan, are shown.
In the last line of that page, the definition version and its creation date
are shown--this is a rough guide to whether you are up to date--the program
will let you know, by way of the icon in the notification area, if you are
substantially out of date.

Updates are via AutoUpdate, so there's no user interaction required for
many.

The history screen will only show actions taken--it doesn't record scans
which don't result in any cleaning action needed.

Take some time to check out Tools, Options--remember to use the scroll bar
to scroll down.

I'd recommend to everyone (myself included)--reading the help. This is one
aspect of the program which definitely can be changed--so if there's info
that is needed, or is unclear or misleading--now's the time to speak up
about it.

The help recommends a daily quick scan, with a full scan if anything is
found, as I recall. I'd like to echo this recommendation--unless your
machine is new and powerful, or you let the scan happen in off hours at
night. Full scans are quite resource intensive and may impact other uses of
the computer, even though they are completely in the background.

"hard to tell it is doing anything" is, in fact, something of a complement
to the team, I think. That's part of the aim--this is not the techies "in
your face," swiss army knife anti-spyware app--it is one which "just works."
It can reside on the machine with very little care and feeding, but which
has quite powerful detection and cleaning capabilities, and a user interface
easily understood and able to be modified for the many languages Windows is
available in.

Thanks for posting that thoughtful reply. It helps calm the
new-user-new-software jitters!-)

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Thanks for posting that thoughtful reply. It helps calm the
new-user-new-software jitters!-)

Thanks! I'm expecting a significant influx of this in the near future. I'm
not sure how the process works for pushing the update to the remaining beta1
users, and I have no information about what proportion have already
migrated--but I'm expecting some significant volume of traffic related to
users new to beta2 soon.