Jesper Plays XP SP3 Hero
link: original article - section: windows
Now this is the kind of transparency I'd like to see from Microsoft. Joe Wilcox write: I subscribe to 459 RSS feeds (the number surely will increase by tomorrow; additions are nearly daily).
Among them: Jesper Johansson's blog. He describes himself as a "a Microsoft MVP in Windows Security." Jesper is certainly earning his Microsoft Most Valuable Professional designation this week. In a frequently updated blog post, he has been offering invaluable information for people having problems with Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Turns out the update causes some PCs to go into endless reboot cycles. Strange, this is familiar. Microsoft had to pull a Windows Vista SP1 prerequisite update for similar behavior.
I contacted Microsoft PR this afternoon and got back by e-mail that the company "is aware of these issues and is investigating them further."
Jesper explains the "issues" based on personal experience in the post, which he's updated a couple times over the last two days:
"Last night WSUS [Windows Server Update Services] deployed XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to the sole remaining computer running XP that I have. This morning, I came down and was greeted with incessant reboots. The computer booted, apologized for not being able to boot properly, asked if I wanted to boot into safe mode, defaulted to normal boot, rebooted, and so on and so on.
"At this point, I want to clarify that the endless rebooting is not at all related to SP3 per se. The problem is that with some configurations, SP3 causes the computer to crash during boot, and Windows XP, by default, is set up to automatically reboot when it crashes. That is why you end up in the endless rebooting scenario."
I could have blogged about Microsoft mucking up yet another service pack. But Jesper's candid blog account is a better story. He's doing what Microsoft claims to be doing: being more transparent. He honestly recounts his problem and offers solutions based on his experience (more on those in a few paragraphs).
Jesper is a Microsoft enthusiast (and former employee), who could have made lots of apologies for the company. His candidness makes him believable and more easily trusted. I'd like to see more of this candidness—the heart-on-the-sleeve blogging that made Robert Scoble geekdom famous—among Microsoft bloggers.
A few weeks ago, I spoke with Sean O'Driscoll, Microsoft's advisor on social media, online communities and influencer program strategy, and Toby Richards, general manager of Community Support Services, about the important role MVPs play.
"People find users more credible than corporations," Sean said. "What's really important about influencers is that they're an honest voice." He observed that "MVPs are first to judge Microsoft."
Jesper has been more Tier 1 tech support than judge.
