Corrupt File Problems – What to Do?

Sorry for all the problems with the ZIP files. I mentioned it in a posting - there is a bug in Office Live that corrupts compressed folders created with Windows XP when they get uploaded. Since I use Windows XP on the machine I created these powertoys, the files got corrupted after uploading.

And by "investigation," I sent a feedback from the Feedback link on my portal. Office Live is working on a fix and suggested using a third party compression client as a workaround.

Let me spin this problem into a testing world and how a testing plan has to be changed. My customers (the users downloading my powertoys) are reporting problems. After investigation, I found the source of the errors. Since I'm the tester responsible for releasing these files, I'm going to change my habits for testing them when I upload them. From now on, I will download the files on three different machines (Windows XP, Vista and Windows 2003 Server), and will create the files with WinZip.

And hopefully I will catch more of my own (embarrassing) bugs before others see them.