Products · Broad category
Microsoft documentation
Raised as a usability problem by 62 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 53 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Documentation adds little beyond surface-level contentUnreviewed
20092026- Hard to find complete docs without deprecated APIs mixed in2024-10-11
- Documentation is messy with multiple diverging UI paradigms, so author can't figure out updates2023-03-30
- Microsoft documentation is so convoluted it is nearly useless for learning2021-09-23
Error searches lead through forums to dead MSDN pagesUnreviewed
20092026- Error messages link to 404 pages or MSDN homepage; links between pages break2021-06-13
- Links to MSDN blog pages are broken, and clicking Microsoft docs links redirects to the main page.2021-03-28
- Searching for errors leads through forum links to dead MSDN pages2016-05-04
Documentation can't be found from the MSDN home pageUnreviewed
20092026- Couldn't find documentation from the MSDN home page, had to use search engines2021-06-13
- Reference docs lack the detailed samples and remarks found on MSDN2017-10-10
- MSDN-style documentation sites became hard to use after the Metro redesign2013-06-28
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Links lead to more links with no actual information, and the layout keeps changing2026-09-07
- Vendor documentation is so vague and error-filled it misleads users2026-08-11
- Official docs are hard to navigate, so people resort to repeated Google searches2025-12-08
- Auth docs are scattered across conflicting pages, with the needed info buried elsewhere2025-11-20
- Docs omit Ubuntu 24.04 and put package signing keys in inconsistent places, causing confusion2025-06-26
- Machine-translation warning is hard to notice, so readers hit confusing text unexpectedly2025-05-21
- Hard to find complete docs without deprecated APIs mixed in2024-10-11
- Official Microsoft docs are poorly written and hard to use for finding answers2023-06-27
- Documentation search is so poor that people go to DuckDuckGo instead2023-04-19
- Documentation is messy with multiple diverging UI paradigms, so author can't figure out updates2023-03-30
- Machine-translated docs were unreadable, with no option to view the original2022-09-02
- Offline help is hard to reach and inconvenient, pushing users online2022-03-14
- Language resets every search, so the user must re-select it each time2022-03-11
- Important information is hard to find, so user resorts to archive.org2021-12-05
- Microsoft documentation is so convoluted it is nearly useless for learning2021-09-23
- Help button leads to a page that doesn't address the user's setup problem, forcing hunting through links2021-08-21
- Pages 404 or get replaced with irrelevant version content, making needed info hard to find2021-06-14
- Migrated function reference pages show incorrect return types, such as void, misleading readers2021-06-13
- Couldn't find documentation from the MSDN home page, had to use search engines2021-06-13
- In-tool links to documentation often lead to broken pages or unhelpful information2021-06-13
- API pages show only bare signatures with no explanatory text, leaving developers unable to learn how to use them2021-06-13
- Error messages link to 404 pages or MSDN homepage; links between pages break2021-06-13
- Links to MSDN blog pages are broken, and clicking Microsoft docs links redirects to the main page.2021-03-28
- Answers are buried, posts are years old, and moderators miss known solutions2021-03-07
- Key configuration info is scattered in blog posts instead of official documentation2020-11-12
- PDFs have zero grouping and broken bookmarks that jump off by a page2020-09-25
- Close button on the page does nothing without JavaScript, so the dismiss action fails2020-06-30
- Searching docs returns UWP, WPF, and WinForms pages mixed together, wasting effort to find the right one2020-02-26
- Took a week to find how to do OAuth because docs only showed .NET examples2020-02-18
- Documentation is unusable, with little added information beyond surface-level content2019-10-29
- Hard to find the right documentation page, though it is improving2019-10-28
- Documentation is hard to use; you can't tell what matters because of boilerplate2019-07-22
- Online docs are scattered, repetitive, and slow to find and access2019-07-14
- Developers can't tell which .NET and UWP path to commit to2019-05-02
- Hard to find sparse docs for CLR tuning, Service Fabric and exact guarantees2019-04-26
- Confusing product names make documentation hard to search and find the right solution2018-02-28
- Reference docs lack the detailed samples and remarks found on MSDN2017-10-10
- Hard to navigate Microsoft docs, with lots of seemingly duplicate content2017-06-07
- Microsoft documentation is so unclear it delayed the commenter's work for years2017-05-24
- Microsoft documentation is incredibly confusing for turning off telemetry and privacy connections2017-05-22
- Linked pages lack the class being looked up, so users can't find what they need2017-03-17
- Two major navbars and footer distract from the content, and the logo link can't get back2017-02-23
- Finding an article takes too many nested clicks through tabs and menus2017-02-09
- Unclear whether App-V feature is about managing or running apps2016-10-03
- Docs don't explain how async socket functions work with threadpool I/O, forcing trial-and-error2016-06-09
- Searching for errors leads through forum links to dead MSDN pages2016-05-04
- Content is too narrow, leaving most of the wide screen empty2016-05-04
- Hovering over text makes the page content shift and jump around2016-05-04
- Site is agonizingly slow to load, making it unclear whether the browser was at fault2016-05-04
- Quick menu pops up whenever user selects text while reading2016-05-04