From:                     Jim Allchin

Sent:                      Thursday, May 04, 2000 1:44 AM

To:                         MS Corporate Employees: FTE Only; MS Domestic Employees: FTE Only; MS Intl Employees: FTE Only

Subject:                 Help BETA test the Microsoft Windows 2000 Blue Screen Resource Center

In order to both help customers resolve issues and help the engineering team improve our products, we have created a Windows 2000 Blue Screen Resource Center that will allow customers to receive free analysis of Windows 2000 blue screen crash dumps.  By collecting and analyzing crash data, Microsoft can provide resolutions, workarounds, and general troubleshooting information to customers.  We are releasing an initial internal-only beta today for the blue screen resource center.

This project demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to Windows 2000 reliability by analyzing Windows 2000 blue screens for customers free of charge, and having dedicated staff to debug and solve the problems that our customers are hitting.   We are hardcore about quality.  This is just another step to prove it.

There are two key values that this service provides:

· Value to the Customer:

This service provides customers live access to the knowledge that Microsoft gathers about blue screen crashes.  In cases where Microsoft has determined a resolution, customers will be able to immediately gain access to the solution for the specific crash that they have encountered.

· Value to Microsoft:

This service will provide real-world crash trend data which can be used in numerous ways to improve Windows. We will be able to determine the exact crashes that customers are encountering, how often they happen, and what the causes are. This data is extremely valuable in that we can use it to determine where we can make additional stability and reliability improvements both in our code, hardware, and in 3rd party code.

I'm very excited about the benefits to our customers and our product quality that this project will provide.  We've made tremendous improvements in reliability in Windows 2000 and this service will allow us to continue that trend.

If you have encountered a blue screen crash in Windows 2000, please take the time to visit http://blueres, submit a report, and send any feedback you have on the beta.   This project is still in it's early phases, but we need your experience to build the database.  

thanks,

jim