How to provide feedback to microsoft?

I too had a lot of problems finding somewhere to post my thoughts/comments on an update issue.  I got around it by using a support request.  I don't know if it will be read or acted upon by anyone with the power to make changes but at least I tried.

https://support2.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1539

The great difficulty in finding some way to provide feedback, says to me that Microsoft doesn't really care what we think as they are pretty secure in their almost monopoly.  Given how rapidly the computing landscape changes, this is so shortsighted it would make me laugh if it wasn't so frustrating.

If perchance a Microsoft public relations guru happens to read this...ask yourself what being ignored in a retail outlet does to brand loyalty, willingness to recommend and future purchase decisions.

Apple has a web page where you can provide feeback to Apple on their products, software, and services:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Is there a way to provide feedback to Microsoft on their products, software and services?

Why would we goto a Apple page -unless Microsoft is Ducking of course!

Just typical Microsoft RUN-AROUND!

As an end-user, this is a thoroughly frustrating thread.  This is what it sounds like to me:

Uh, hi, how do I provide feedback/ideas to Microsoft.

You just use one of the various mechanisms provided for input.

Well, some of them don't seem appropriate for just giving feedback/ideas when I don't want support.

Well, you just pick the right one for what it is you're doing and what it is you want to convey.

Yea, but with so many options, it still doesn't seem like there is one that just lets me give feedback/ideas and that I have to do a lot of looking around to find something and, even if I find one quickly, I'm not sure it's the right one.

Well, take a risk and try them.  Trust us that someone is monitoring them.

Having a potential plethora of ways to comment and/or get support doesn't necessarily equate with having a simple mechanism for giving product input that gives me, the end-user, the supposedly important person that Microsoft wants to empower, confidence that my input is going to the correct place.  Think of it from an end-user's perspective:  if you give me a hundred ways to provide input and some of them clearly don't end up where I want (such as wanting to provide input on Excel itself and not feedback on the web site for Excel), I'm going to tend to not be confident that I'm using the correct mechanism or that my feedback really is going where I want it.

The last few posts here by the people seeking to provide feedback are clear that they are trying to provide feedback (think new feature ideas, ideas on how current features could work better, frustrations with current features or the lack thereof that can help Microsoft develop better products).  They aren't trying to get support/answers.  The various Microsoft mechanisms tend to be geared toward providing support/answers or for getting feedback for something I just did in a program (such as using help in Excel) or looking up information on a web site, not toward getting random feedback/ideas on things the user isn't necessarily even currently doing (such as, oh, I was using Excel two weeks ago and I had this great idea on how to make charts simpler; I finally have time to send in my idea; oh, but wait, where do I write up my thoughts and whom do I send them to).

For Microsoft employees on this thread, if you want to see an example of a single portal that would be similar to what the end-users here have been suggesting, please talk with the Office sustaining engineering team.  I used to work for Microsoft and was the Lead for a team of engineers who created such a site for customer support.  That site was for getting real users' issues into our system so we could address them.  Something like that could easily be adapted for the purpose the end-users on this thread desire. If I remember correctly (since we built the site a few years ago and I retired from Microsoft earlier this year), one of the reasons we built that site was because input could come in from various sources in various ways and we needed one place to funnel that information through to enable the appropriate people to see all the issues coming in and to make decisions on whether or not we were going to address any particular issue.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a Microsoft Feedback and Feature Request portal could be quite simple.  It doesn't seem like it would require much more than controls to drilldown to which product you want to comment on (perhaps, for example, a dropdown list of Office versions--such as Office 2013 and Office 2016--and a dropdown list of platforms--such as Windows, Mac, Android), controls to gather user information such as name and email address, and an edit box to provide the desired input.  The backend could route the input to the appropriate product team.  An end-user might then be able to search the site for input they've given in the past and see what, if anything, was done in response to their input. Of course, you might want to provide other product/feature drilldown capabilities; I'm just giving a simple example.

Such a site would not be for an end-user to get support/answers. It would just be for providing feedback/ideas.

My two cents...  I hope it helps clarify things.  :-)

Yep, this has been a frustrating thread. 

However, to give Microsoft their dues, since this thread was first created I think they've improved the ease and discoverability of means to provide feedback, at least in the most modern version of Windows and recently overhauled apps and web services.

In Windows 10 there is a dedicated Windows feedback app in which you can provide feedback on Windows or Microsoft's bundled metro apps (Mail, Calendar, Calulator, Groove Music etc). The app provides a public tally of which are the most popular ideas/bug reports which you can just upvote if you wish rather than creating a brand new idea. You can also launch this app from the settings section of Micorosft's various metro apps.  

http://www.windowscentral.com/all-windows-10-users-can-use-windows-feedback-app-windows-insiders-get-extra-features

Its also now easy to provide feedback on various online services (Outlook.com, OneDrive, Office Online). Just click the gear or hamburger icon in the top right hand corner and you'll see a send feedback option. I have received personal responses on some of the feedback I've provided through this form.

The various Microsoft apps I use on my Android phone have a send feedback option in the settings menu.

The main thing missing (at least for those who have upgraded to Windows 10) is an easy way to provide on the Windows desktop version of Office. Hoefully this will come with Office 2016. Making it easier to provide feedback on Microsoft hardware is also still needed.

Yes, I agree. The mechanisms for giving feedback have been improving since this post started.  Microsoft has been soliciting and following up on user feedback much more.

My hope in responding earlier was to get any Microsoft folks on the post to take a step back and try to understand better the user request and the need for clear, consistent methods for not only getting support/answers but also for gathering feedback/ideas, which are differing situations.  Microsoft has tended to have many, somewhat different solutions for any given issue.  The "One Microsoft" initiative should help clean out unnecessary mechanisms and make the remaining mechanisms more consistent.

Microsoft is transitioning still from product releases every 1 to 3 years to services that are more frequently updated.  This requires better feedback mechanisms and quicker understanding of user comments. Microsoft has been putting much effort into both of these.