It’s true, Microsoft now has a form you can fill out to have a hotfix emailed to you. Sounds great, doesn’t it?!? In theory yes, and that was certainly how I felt when I first heard about it. But in reality it may be a useless service, at least for me or other time-based consultants.
Today, I’d figured I test it out to see how well it works, if at all. And to some mild surprise, I’m considering it pointless. It’s currently 12:13pm and I filled out the form around 11:00am and I still do not have any hotfixes in my inbox. The real concerning part was what it said on the screen after I submitted the form.
Your request was successfully submitted to Microsoft. A Microsoft Professional will respond to you via e-mail within 8 business hours.
Potentially 8 hours?? That is ludicrous! I will update this entry when I actually get the hotfix. But keep this in mind if you think it will save you some time.
If you’ve used this, please share your results.
Update: I finally got the hotfix at 2:25p.m. Took 3 1/2 hours to arrive. Looks like I’ll still be calling when I need one.
The only time I’d see this being useful is at a weekend when the hotfix support line is closed (or in the middle of the night). Sometimes in the middle of the night you could call another international number and get the hotfix from a location in another time zone but at the weekend you are pretty much stuffed – unless you find a dodgy site that hosts the file.
In all honesty, calling to get the hotfixes is really no big deal. I just always like an option to not have to deal with a human.