The Broken Design of Microsoft's "Fix it" Tool

Posted by kdawson on Friday February 6, 2009 @04:52AM from the teething-problems dept.

$luggo writes "Curious about MS Fix It, I recently went hunting in the MS knowledge base for articles that provide the new EZ-button. After locating on few, I decided to click the button to download the Microsoft Installer package containing the executable and/or files that automatically enable the DVD Library feature in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate — on my XP Media Center. 'Surely, MS will use some scripting, HTTP User-Agent sniffing, or even Genuine Windows validation to verify that I am running Vista,' I thought. It did not and I canceled the download when I received the prompt to save the file. So, I wonder: is there a Fix-it for Fix it? Because I can easily imagine someone doing what I did without scrolling to the bottom of the KB article and verifying that the article applies to their OS/version. This is a great example poor design. Why not simply use the download approach that other articles / fixes / service packs use, whereby the user must select the appropriate OS?"

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wtf by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-06 05:00 · Score: -1, Offtopic

You don't even know. You didn't even test it. Editor must be asleep on this early friday morning.
1. Re:wtf by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-06 05:15 · Score: -1, Offtopic
  
  You don't even know. You didn't even test it. Editor must be asleep on this early friday morning.
  "Editor"? This is posted by kdawson, not an editor.
Oh, wait no by Reality+Master+201 · 2009-02-06 05:01 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Ignore that.
In other news by Locke2005 · 2009-02-06 06:03 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Ex-Microsoft chief deliberately releases bugs into the wild!

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I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.