Laptop GPS World

Some of you may have read my posts about Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 failing some time after installing and using it. Re-installation does not solve the problem.
Microsoft claims they don't know why it fails and have apparently given up.

I would like some assurance that the same problem would not happen Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009. I don't like the prospect that I have a trip all programmed into S&T, am far from home and then S&T fails. Returning it for a refund at that point is not much help.

Just for reference, for people not familiar with this issue, it has been discussed in: http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/micros...5-6-weeks.html

* Yes, at least one person working for Microsoft stated at one time something to the effect that the cause of the problem was not yet known;

* I doubt Microsoft would give up on something like this, though.

My speculation is (and this is purely only a speculation), the issue may be related to the newly introduced activation scheme. Earlier Streets and Trips versions didn't suffer this issue. I've seen issues created in other products when they first introduced activation. But this is all just my guess. Let's see if any info comes our way.

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics

Marvin's guess is a fairly likely hypothesis.

But as I said on the other thread, there is a really fine line between PR and tech support. Many people aren't going to call in, but will just give up in frustration. Releasing even some basic information publicly can do an awful lot of good, vs. the usual (silent) tech support process. For example, "X people have called in, and we've been actively debugging with Y% of them for Z weeks and haven't found anything yet."

There are some groups in Microsoft that take an active interest in forums and newsgroups, to "take the temperature" of user complaints and wishes. (e.g. look at microsoft.public.windows.vista.general) Streets and Trips doesn't seem to be one of these. That's a real oversight, in my opinion, especially for a consumer product.

The start-up issue seems to have been solved, as at least three users reported on pages 9 and 10 of the following discussion: http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/micros...5-6-weeks.html

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Marvin Hlavac

Laptop GPS software reviews | Stores offering discounts to our members: Semsons & Co. Inc. and Deluo Electronics