A Patch Is Born

Gary Busby is Active Directory Services Engineer for a beverage company in Atlanta, Ga. He says he reported the problem to Microsoft last year and urged them to fix it.

''It took them almost six months to even get us an initial patch in the first place in February or March [2004],'' Busby says. ''And then it took a while to get the final QFE [Quick Fix Engineering patch] in April.''

The patch is dated April 9, 2004, and replaces Windows' buggy Scesrv.dll file, Busby explains. The fixed files he's been able to obtain from Microsoft are called version 5.0.2195.6923 for Windows 2000 Server and version 5.2.3790.160 for Windows 2003 Server, he says.

If you haven't heard about this problem -- or the fix that's been available for the last few months -- it's because Microsoft took its sweet time before it posted a bulletin about the situation. It wasn't until July 2 that the Redmond software giant released a description called Knowledge Base Article 833281.

Using the patch can save corporations a bundle.

''We have over 1,000 servers worldwide,'' Busby says. ''We had a solid 25 percent to 30 percent reduction in the size of our differential backups when doing our backups [after installing the fix].''

Free Hotfix For Those In The Know

I confirmed Busby's story by calling Microsoft's Support Customer Care number last week. Since my name is well-known within Microsoft circles, I asked my research director, Vickie Stevens, to pose as a Windows 2000 information systems manager during the call. She requested the hotfix known as ''833281'', saying she'd read an article about this and had heard from a friend that this was the number of the patch she needed.

A Microsoft support worker named Paul said at first that he couldn't find a Knowledge Base article bearing that number. (That was true at the time, because the article hadn't yet been publicly posted at Microsoft's site.) When he was asked to search the company's records for ''833281'' and ''Windows 2000'', however, he quickly found an internal document that described the update.

The staffer e-mailed us a link that allowed us to download a password-protected hotfix file. Once we decompressed the file, we found that it contained two related executables whose names begin with ''WINDOWS2000-KB833281''. These files were digitally signed by Microsoft with a date stamp of April 9, 2004.

Conclusion

The above example illustrates the fact that even well-documented bugs sometimes go unannounced for months before Microsoft will publicly release the needed patch or bulletin. But, fortunately, the company charges nothing for the 833281 hotfix  if you know that you need to ask for it.

Microsoft Support Customer Care can be called at 1-800-936-3500 in the United States and Canada. For numbers in other countries, visit Microsoft's International Support page. Select your country, then click the links entitled ''Contact Microsoft'' and ''Phone Numbers''. You also might want to cross your fingers for good luck.