How do I report a problem to MS?

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,
This past weekend my Windows 8.1 picked up updates.
Unfortunately they (or one of them) broke my SQL Server 2005, that came with the machine - turns out I can't query any of the table in the "sys" schema.

Is there a way to report the problem to MS?

Thank you.

[VictorN]

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...previewgeneral
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b8akas30.aspx
https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/mailform/contactus.aspx
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...previewgeneral

This link requires a Windows Developer Preview program, which I don't have. And I presume to become one I need to pay MS huge amount of money to get MSDN subscription. Don't want to and don't need to - this will be a one-time thing.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b8akas30.aspx

This link about reporting issue with MSVC 2015. I don't have this version and my problem is not with Visual Studio.

https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/mailform/contactus.aspx

This one about MSDN Web Site. Don't care about MSDN Web Site. My problem is not with it.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home

This is the closest one - but in order to ask the question on the forum it is asking "to create MSDN Profile" even if I already have one which the site is not recognizing.

Any other way?
Once again - the update of Windows 8.1 broke the SQL Server 2005 (both came with the laptop). I can't run query against a table/view inside the "sys" schema.
Updating happened Sunday 22 July 2018.

I tried to install all updates - not just an important ones, but that didn't fix the issue.

Anything else I can do?

Thank you.

[VictorN]

Well, I see now it is no so easy...
They seem to move to kind a "Feedback Hub".

Try also
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...nd-us-feedback
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/insta...eloper-preview

PS: the problem looks like the same as with MSDN: every new version becomes worse and worse...
PPS: even worse is the every new Skype version!

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,

Well, I see now it is no so easy...
They seem to move to kind a "Feedback Hub".

Apparently so.

Try also
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...nd-us-feedback

Apparently it looks like this link belongs to Windows 10 as it references Microsoft Store.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/insta...eloper-preview

And this one requires MSDN subscription.

PS: the problem looks like the same as with MSDN: every new version becomes worse and worse...

M$ sucks... ;-)

PPS: even worse is the every new Skype version!

Don't know - don't have Skype. And now I wonder what will happen with GitHub

Apparently it is very hard to report problem to M$ - you have to have a subscription to the MSDN or pay just to report bugs.

Thank you.
I will try to talk to M$ rep again tomorrow. If nothing I might come back here.

Thank you.

[2kaud]

Originally Posted by VictorN View Post
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home
This is the closest one - but in order to ask the question on the forum it is asking "to create MSDN Profile" even if I already have one which the site is not recognizing.

This is a Microsoft account that is required. It is easy to create and has nothing to do with MSDN AFAIK. It's just like creating a profile for codeguru. Note however that this is a forum. You'll get suggestions as to what to do to work around the problem.

Apparently it is very hard to report problem to M$ - you have to have a subscription to the MSDN or pay just to report bugs.

If you actually want to get a problem resolved, then unfortunately you have to pay!

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,

This is a Microsoft account that is required. It is easy to create and has nothing to do with MSDN AFAIK. It's just like creating a profile for codeguru. Note however that this is a forum. You'll get suggestions as to what to do to work around the problem.

When I hit the "Ask question" button and signed on with my gmail account I got a page which says "Create you MSDN Profile to Contribute".
Now why should I create this extra thing - I already have an account, which is what should be required to post a question/suggestion/problem.

But even then - it does not have an option to follow with the existing profile, because when I fill in the display name with my name it says: "The display name is already in use. Please choose another display name".

I would guess that those profile will be coupled with the E-mail ID, but apparently it is not the case.

If you actually want to get a problem resolved, then unfortunately you have to pay!

I will be happy if this will be fixed sometime in the future, not immediately. Since it is an OS update that broke it, I would guess that it will have to be another update with the fix.
I seriously doubt that someone from MS can get in and figure out why after the updates, I suddenly can't run queries inside SQL Server without a debugging session. Therefore I doubt I will have to pay for the fix. ;-)

Thank you.

[Arjay]

Can you roll back to a previous restore point and undo the update?

[Arjay]

Btw, in terms of the update breaking your sys queries, perhaps it was a security change. You might want to look through the security area in ssms and see if the db permissions have changed for your user account.

[OneEyeMan]

Arjay,
I can. But someone else can not.
The point is that M$ didn't verify that the update they release will break something.
Granted - the actual developer/DB Admin will very rarely run Win 8.1 and query system tables of SQL Server (2005). Nevertheless, this should be fixed.

Some people might work for the company where it is not possible to do the rollback. Some people will just don't care and continue working. But what happen when the next time MS releases the patch and the INFORMATION_SCHEMA queries will fail.

My point is that both of those product are from MS and they are not doing a good job handling everything, because, well.... it's everything. You can't test every possible combinations of the software that becomes installed. But this one you should. Because it comes by default with the system.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

Searching bing or google for "db permissions required to query sys tables" may help as well.

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,

Searching bing or google for "db permissions required to query sys tables" may help as well.

But it was working prior to the update. And now it does not.
Also, I'm connecting as a root/Admin, so should have all right necessary.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

It is a bit unreasonable to expect Microsoft to continue to regression test a product whose end of life was in 2016.

Time to upgrade SQL 2005.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sql...grade-options/

[OneEyeMan]

Arjay,
Well I have SQL Server 2005 and 2012 installed side-by-side. It just 2005 one is running by default as the product that was installed initially.
Now the problem is that if I start running 2012 now and this breaks, I won't ever know whether it is a regression after the OS update or it was happened before.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

Sounds like a real mess of outdated components. Good luck.