Products · Broad category
Microsoft products
Raised as a usability problem by 150 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 138 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Dark patterns ensnare users into things they did not chooseUnreviewed
20082026- Products use dark patterns that ensnare users into things they did not choose2026-04-09
- Constantly blocked from basic tasks by ads and dark patterns2026-03-30
- Products are half-baked, with inconsistent behaviour and dark patterns that users must put up with2026-01-04
Generic unknown error messages hide what went wrongUnreviewed
20082026- Blocked with a generic error that gives no useful explanation of what went wrong2024-10-17
- Error messages are vague and give no useful detail about what went wrong2021-11-19
- Standard error messages upset users because they give no clear guidance2020-12-07
Windows games load slowly, show ads and need multiple clicks to startUnreviewed
20082026- Takes forever to open and needs multiple clicks to start a game2021-11-17
- Startup is very slow, gets stuck loading ads, and lags while playing2021-03-02
- Modern Windows games load slowly, show ads, and need multiple clicks to start2020-09-09
Current documentation is hard to find amid outdated materialUnreviewed
20082026- Hard to find current documentation amid outdated, deprecated material2025-05-24
- Configuration is hard to discover and documentation is outdated2020-05-26
- Documentation is awful and everything feels overly verbose and overengineered2015-05-22
Confusingly similar product editions make choosing hardUnreviewed
20082026- Too many confusingly similar product editions make it hard to tell which to pick2023-09-17
- Too many overlapping products and versions make the environment confusing and hard to navigate2012-05-28
- Product lineup is confusing, with a messy branding scheme2012-02-24
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
- Microsoft products are described as unusable, with no specific problem named2026-09-17
- Support webpages are a maze that don't work; support tickets get closed unanswered2026-09-08
- Confusing setup, and designed to push people into spending money2026-08-04
- No visible way to cancel the service except stopping payments2026-06-10
- Word files and Teams folder browsing are slow, causing procrastination on small tasks2026-06-03
- Every interaction with Microsoft products is painful, and it forces accounts and ads on users2026-05-31
- Login system is a mess; partner setup spans many accounts, forms and systems2026-05-25
- Technically competent software covered in things that make it infuriating to use2026-04-28
- Products use dark patterns that ensnare users into things they did not choose2026-04-09
- Interfaces are information-poor and incoherent when designed to work across phones and desktops2026-04-06
- Searching for Visual Studio returns VS Code results because the names are confusingly similar2026-04-04
- Constantly blocked from basic tasks by ads and dark patterns2026-03-30
- Products increasingly hostile and sloppy to use, with users seemingly never tested2026-02-18
- Microsoft's products have become unusable lately2026-02-02
- Microsoft product UI/UX quality noticeably declined after the STE role was eliminated2026-01-27
- Support repeatedly asks the same checks and closes tickets for inactivity2026-01-25
- Portal is unusable unless user adds a security exception2026-01-10
- Products are half-baked, with inconsistent behaviour and dark patterns that users must put up with2026-01-04
- Too many AI features everywhere make products increasingly hard to use2025-12-04
- Internal tools were so immature that staff found them unusable2025-12-04
- User experience feels like an afterthought in Microsoft products2025-11-28
- AI added everywhere makes everyday software more annoying to use2025-11-28
- Pushes people into dark patterns instead of building usable products2025-09-12
- Scrolling feels sluggish, like moving through treacle, and distracts from reading2025-08-28
- Endless nagging and annoyances from Microsoft software2025-08-20
- Software gradually made unusable and buggy, with AI clutter added2025-08-11
- Product names are so confusing that people can't search for information about them2025-07-10
- Hard to tell what to click after buttons became vaguely colored text links2025-07-02
- Windows has too many separate settings panels to navigate2025-06-10
- Hard to find current documentation amid outdated, deprecated material2025-05-24
- Full-width images too big to fit on screen, and scrolljacking makes scrolling hard2025-04-16
- Recent Microsoft apps feel bloated, slow and buggy to use2025-04-15
- Page Up/Down keys don't work and mouse scrolling is laggy, making browsing hard2025-04-04
- Software forced into German language when user wants English2025-03-27
- Save shows no error after backend 403; loader spins indefinitely2025-02-10
- Logins redirect to odd places and require signing in repeatedly across Microsoft sites2024-10-21
- Blocked with a generic error that gives no useful explanation of what went wrong2024-10-17
- No direct way to report bugs; tickets bounced around and had to be resubmitted2024-08-31
- Preferences must be reset repeatedly, and interface options keep reverting to unwanted defaults2024-08-14
- Apps have become buggy, crash constantly, and make the machine feel sluggish2024-08-05
- New Solitaire is laggy, slow, and bloated with extra downloads pushing spending2024-07-30
- Solitaire downloads updates and loads a laggy bundled app before the game runs2024-07-29
- Microsoft uses dark patterns that users find annoying2024-04-19
- Down arrow at bottom scrolls very slowly, and scrollbar input gets ignored2024-04-10
- Support keeps stalling with upgrade requests and log demands instead of solving the problem2023-10-21
- Microsoft software is described as infuriating to use compared with Google's2023-09-29
- Too many confusingly similar product editions make it hard to tell which to pick2023-09-17
- Clicking Minesweeper opens the Store instead of launching; ad banner accidentally clicked over game icon2023-09-03
- Agent is disabled and unusable for non-administrator users by default2023-08-29
- Security setup in Microsoft apps is a real pain to use2023-08-13