I'm mad as hell... "Microsoft xx has encountered a problem"

[Kevin]

Microsoft xxx has encountered a problem...


How often have you seen this message? I'm delighted that MS is sorry that
this has occurred and is sorry for my inconvenience, and wants reports on
it, but less than delighted that it has, in fact, occurred, and now
thoroughly pissed that it's still occurring after what, 20 years in the
business?.

I spend much of my life in the development environment, and so can maybe
understand if I've done things that the MS engineers didn't expect, but I
just got this message from Access 2003 out of the clear blue sky after about
40 minutes into keying a long entry into a memo field with nothing else
exciting going on, and I got it again when I started Outlook Express just
now.

Is anyone else as pissed at MS as I am? Mr. Gates appears to be hell-bent
for leather on creating the next paradigm, disregarding the fact that no
paradigm he's created in the past has ever worked right. FaCrisSake, he's
had 20 years to make a mail merge work in Word, and it's still a disaster.
If I did that for my clients, I'd be long out of business, and frankly it's
hard enough to stay in business given the tools that MS has given me. An
old friend told me, "it's a poor carpenter who blames his tools." Well,
this poor carpenter has a Skil saw that suddenly decides to cut at a right
angle from where I'm pointing it, and then sends me a message which says,
"I'm sorry I've decided to go where you didn't want me to go, and I
apologize for the inconvenience, but would you like me to send a message to
my makers which they'll probably ignore?"

Please pass this message on. I'm mad as hell, and I don't want to take it
any more.

Kevin (who hopes he won't get that stupid apology when he posts this
message)

 

[Allen Browne]

Hi Kevin.

We are all very sorry for your inconvenience.
(Sorry: couldn't resist.)

Seriously though, your message is a valid vent, so you are probably just
wanting us to hear your frustration rather than try to provide solutions.

There are several issues with Access 2003, but it is possible to configure
it so that it is the most stable version ever released. We have it down to
one crash about every 3 weeks now during heavy development. Suggestions in:
Preventing Corruption
at:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-25.html

 

[Andy]

Only once every three weeks for a product we PAY for! This cannot be deemed
acceptable. I think I agree more with Kevin...and Kevin, thanks for venting
my frustrations as well!

Andy

 

[Allen Browne]

Andy, let me clarify that we are talking about development, not using the
software.

Once you stop altering the objects (creating/deleting/modifying the
forms/reports/code), a well designed Access application will run for *years*
without a corruption, assuming a stable network, stable power, reliable
computers, and users don't just power off without closing down.

For development, though, Access has always had unacceptable levels of
crashes. Now that crashes have a "Send Report" option, it seems that
Microsoft is analyzing the reports that come in, tracking down and
addressing the ones that frequently occur. I believe that's why we are
seeing A2003 crashing less than any previous 32-bit version. Well, that and
the extra beta testing that was done before A2003 was released.

Now if we could only get them to address the more serious issues where it
doesn't crash, but actually gives you the wrong answers. Examples:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/tips.html#flaws