Yep, another bug found in a major Microsoft application. The BCC: in Outlook 97 acts like a regular CC:, so any users sent a blind copy will be known by all recipients of the message. That could be very embarassing to many people sending sensitive inter-office information. This is in no way a big security bug or anything, nor is it really dangerous. This bug is very small, yet it should very noticeable to any software testers. This very easy-to-find bug exists for one reason. This bug exists because Microsoft was in such a hurry to get Office '97 (which Outlook '97 is a part of) to market that it wasn't tested completely.

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 was released before it had been fully tested, apparently Office '97 was too. How much pre-release scrutiny does it take to discover that the BCC: line is doing the same thing as the CC: line? The MSBC is wondering why it took this long to discover that faulty BCC:. According to Micosoft, over 1 million copies of Office '97 have been sold, so why didn't Ms know about this problem?

This is happening frequently with Microsoft applications, they are in such a hurry to get new products to the market and beat the competition that software isn't being fully tested before the ship date. This is a dangerous habit for a company to get into, especially one so well known for buggy software. Ms products have enough bugs when they are tested.

Windows '97 is already running late, how many more weeks will Microsoft delay it just to fully test it out? Every week it's delayed they loose hundreds of thousands of dollars, so will they risk a couple of million bucks just to make sure it works correctly? No, they won't. They will deliver it with some sections untested, and millions of people will buy it that way because they think they have no other choice.

Microsoft knows that 99% of computer users think there's no other choice except Windows, and so they don't care how buggy it is. "Slap it together, those morons will buy it." If Microsoft puts a shiny package around the bugware and advertises it to death, almost nobody will notice the problems. Put this bug on that long list 'ways Microsoft treats customers like dirt.' This is the #1 reason The MSBC exists.