Microsoft Software Engineer Offering Patch Tuesday Help Online

John Wink, a Senior Software Engineer for Windows Servicing & Delivery (defined: Windows updates), has taken to the web to offer assistance with this month’s security updates for Windows 10. It’s an admirable effort, considering Microsoft hasn’t pulled off an error-free patching month for several years. And, it shouldn’t go without a rousing reply of “thanks.”

Whether or not this was suggested move, or John took the initiative on his own, it’s definitely a welcome action. Month after month, those tasked with patching have been left to their own devices to attempt to manage installation errors, reboots, bluescreens, rollback, and just simply botched patches. Microsoft used to be a lot better about providing support, but over the last couple years has pulled back support significantly by eliminating support services that were heavily relied on. Simple things like informative installation logs no longer exist, particularly in Windows 10.

When I first noticed the outreach, I wondered if Microsoft was expecting problems or if it was just being proactive. My answer came from another Microsoftie, this time from a Program Manager on the Windows Insider Engineering. Jason said…

Whether or not its a lone employee crossing Union lines, let’s hope this keeps up and let’s hope this is just the beginning. Let's hope the offer is infectious and John Wink gets some help before our "hero" reaches burnout.

Where to find John and participate:

TechNet forums: Anyone seeing issues with the April updates KB3147461 and KB3147458?

Microsoft Answers: Microsoft wants to know - Anyone seeing issues with the April updates KB3147461 and KB3147458?

John Wink’s Twitter profile: @johnwinkmsft

UPDATE - May 10, 2016: John has already issued a promise that Microsoft will be monitoring Twitter, Reddit and TechNet this mon​th to watch for problems.