back to article Microsoft lines its UserVoice forums up against the wall, readies firing squad of '1st party solutions'

Microsoft has finally confirmed that it is indeed closing down its UserVoice forums, after The Register noted earlier this week that staffers had been merrily shutting some of the crowd-contributed pages. We wrote on Monday that for the Redmond to chuck Office 365 UserVoice in the bin was "ominous" and Microsoft has proven us …

  1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    The "Microsoft Store" still exists? I thought that half-arsed abomination had done the decent thing and crept off into a corner and died quietly.

    1. Paul S. Gazo
      Megaphone

      I'm afraid not. Microsoft keeps putting crap in there, so you can't get it.

      Have Apple users e-mailing your Windows users HEIC files? No worries, Windows 10 has a filter for that... only it's distributed via the Microsoft Store.

      Want to deploy Windows PCs en-mass via new Azure inTune deployment? No worries. Windows 10 has an app (Windows Configuration Designer) to make a glorified XML file for you... only it's distributed via the Microsoft Store.

      Calculator stopped working? No worries. Windows 10 will let you just download it from the Microsoft Store.

      That's acceptable, I guess. When it works. But I seem to find about one in ten computers just don't work right. One of my two work computers just doesn't have Microsoft Store visible at all. No worries. There are PowerShell commands that will reinstall modern apps. Lots of them. Take your pick. I got bored before I found one that worked on my particular machine.

      Remember when you could just download an EXE and it just worked? Yeah, Microsoft's not interested in that reliability anymore. The freaking Start Menu is a modern app that can be broken now, as opposed to just a few library functions Explorer.exe can call on demand.

      So yeah, the MS Store still exists. Wish it didn't.

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Microsoft Store. Where they try to get you to install even crappier versions of existing software. And software that installs its link in the Start menu in the alphabetic list and can't be removed or placed into a function based folder ( as in all the graphics programmes in the same folder so that it's possible to find them when you can't remember what it was called.)

        1. gobaskof
          FAIL

          It seems that some people use the Microsoft store.. I was asking a PhD student to install Python and his first question was "Is it in the Microsoft Store?". Being a Linux user, I had no idea. Turns out it was!! So easy! You just click install. You have python and pip on the path. Every other module that has a defined command line entry point is totally ignored. This leads to sporadic breakages, inconsistent errors, and a hours trying to untangle what is happening. A true Microsoft developer-first experience.

      2. Wade Burchette

        The reason why Microsoft is forcing the app store (and while programs are now called apps) is because they want you to stop buying programs from somewhere else and start buying them from a place where Microsoft gets 30% like Apple and Google. The purpose of Windows 10 is about making money for Microsoft after the first day. This means unprofitable things like reliability and usability are pushed way into the background.

  2. Howard Sway Silver badge

    It is indeed closing down its UserVoice forums

    Did it get a little bit too embarassing that all those user voices kept saying was "this shit has stopped working"?

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: It is indeed closing down its UserVoice forums

      "Will no one rid us of these turbulent customers?"

  3. AlanSh

    Will it make any difference?

    Many years ago (well if feels that long) I was part of the Insider group. My comments seemed to go straight into the great bit bucket in the sky. So, I gave up.

    MS do their own thing - and you either accept it or get off their bandwagon.

    Such is life these days.

    Alan

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Re: Will it make any difference?

      Yup. Even when their own thing is totally barking.

      I've just complained to MS that the outlook.com app for Android defaults to "Reply all" and can't be changed.

      Their response, "Post your suggestion in.....blah blah blah" as always.

      And of course this;

      " We are leveraging 1st party solutions and are evaluating enhancements and standardizations to improve and streamline how we communicate with customers and collect their feedback."

      has to be a textbook example of using meaningless drivel to avoid responding.

    2. Wade Burchette

      Re: Will it make any difference?

      If you look at Microsoft forums where people ask for help, often you get boilerplate responses. For example: "My Windows Update no longer works, and I tried (a), (b), and (c) already. Please help!" And Microsoft's first reply would be "We are sorry you are having trouble. Could you try (a). If that doesn't work, try (b). If you are still having trouble, try (c)." Microsoft didn't even read because the first thing they told them to try was what the person already tried!

      1. Diogenes8080

        Muppet Show

        I suspect that some of those are by posters farming for reputation. What is more depressing is when some of the more asinine suggestions are accepted as fixes, suggesting a degree of collusion or puppetry.

  4. AlexV

    Sign-up UX is a dark pattern, but you don't actually have to sign up for 'helpful tips'

    The first, and probably only, helpful tip you need is that you can press the Skip button instead of the Save button to continue signing up for the account without signing up for the spam.

  5. Keith Langmead

    Deleting old content

    "A wholesale dumping of the data without a migration would seem foolish at best. The company does, however, have form in such matters."

    Yep, see the Technet Gallery as a prime example. A brief time spent as a read-only site, before being completely deleted with all the submitted content binned off. Yes, they have (or are in the process of... it's not cleared from their site) migrated all the MS provided scripts over to Github, but realistically it was the user submitted scripts on there which were actually worthwhile but those have simply been deleted. All because they say that since they don't own those scripts they can't move them over... true, but MS could have just left the Gallery as a read-only resource for a few years rather than months.

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