Comment by teddyuk

Often hotfixes came with private symbols, Microsoft has traditionally been very slack on this.

I’ve seen private symbols for sql server with the guid to switch editions published on the public symbol server for at least 6 months before they were pulled.

Full releases and service packs typically are stripped very well but if you are saying that no private symbols have been published to the public symbol servers then you are incorrect.

The only product that has been effective at stripping symbols traditionally has been office, they were always stripped if you could even get hold of them which was unlikely.

Don’t forget also you could download the checked windows builds which were very open.