How to provide feedback to microsoft?

I think it is so so so ironic that a multi-millionaire software company (for eg microsoft) cannot provide a suitable system that allows users to give general feedback, let alone making it easy to find online or with a user-friendly interface. These 3 things i feel are very easily attainable, and should be the first items of concern for Microsoft's very willing and committed customers. There are many other problems I have with microsoft and its interface, but these are issues i will express in later email. 

To  be continued.....

I have rolled back to Windows 8.1 because I have found Windows 10 to be flawed and unresponsive to fundamental expectations that it support my printer functions. More importantly, after the last update of Windows 10, my computer downloaded another printer update (I think the fifth or sixth following every update of Windows 10) for my HP color laser printer, which is less than two years old. That printer driver was accompanied with a Trojan application, that in updating another pieces of software, came alive and destroyed Windows 10.

The promotion that shows up on my screen every day while now using Windows 8.1 encourages me to update to Windows 10. It's last statement of encouragement is that "It's free. It's easy. No worries." That is far from the fact. It has cost me dearly in time and attention to salvage my information. It's was very difficult to endure this rollback. And it has destroyed my confidence in Microsoft. I will only use Windows for applications for which there is no other alternative.

And when I looked for how to provide feedback to Microsoft, the latest effort to do this was in a post from 2012. What does that tell you about Microsoft's arrogance?

Including one of osm101's earlier responses that folks might have missed that gives information on feedback mechanisms.

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.

As an ex-Microsoft employee, it seems to me that getting one feedback mechanism may only occur if it is somehow brought to Satya's attention or perhaps to the attention of someone like Julie Larson-Green, who as of 2014, apparently worked/works with folks on One Microsoft initiatives (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/24/former-microsoft-hardware-chief-julie-larson-green-moves-to-new-job/).  It might also be helpful to lobby folks like Mary Jo Foley (zdnet.com) or Paul Thurrott (thurrott.com), pundits who are heard within Microsoft.

From my experience, people at Ashley's level are not in a position to affect change to the degree requested by this thread.  Even if she gets a request onto someone's list of a million things to do, there needs to be something more compelling to make handling the request a high enough priority.  Not that the request formulated in the thread doesn't have merit; it does. But, realistically, it is just one more request in a never-ending list of requests.

To make such a change, you have to get to the decision makers and they have to be shown the benefit in making such a change, the risks/ramifications of not making the change, and, if possible, some idea of the number of people that it will be a benefit to or that it is a detriment to.  One of the posts above mentioned Apple having a better feedback mechanism.  That is a potentially good piece of supporting data.  But those making the decisions on such a mechanism at Microsoft need more than that.

That's why I suggest that folks start inundating people who are heard with this request.  If Mary Jo Foley or Paul Thurrott start hearing about frustration/unrest due to the difficulties of providing feedback to Microsoft and they stay true to their character so far, it seems that they would say something about it online.  I mention them first, because I don't know the internal email addresses for Satya or Julie.  If anyone does and wants to share them, I for one, am up for writing them an email stating the concerns/request of this thread.

My two cents...  :-)

So, to re-cap, everyone who has posted to this thread aside from Ashley, the MS employee, has been clear and consistent that all we want is a central, one-click, no registration feedback site where we can give Microsoft suggestions and feedback about their products. 

Ashley, by contrast, has provided specific avenues that she says accomplish this, though each has been found to be completely insufficient. Not only do her suggested methods require registration (why do I want to register as a user just to supply feedback?), but they do not, in fact, allow anyone to submit feedback directly to MS.

The methods that users stumble-upon, such as a "Feedback" link hidden within the settings of Outlook.com, are not helping. After searching the internet and finding only this and similar threads on forums, it is clear that MS does not in fact have a central repository for feedback - and Ashley actually points to the gigantic, byzantine nature of MS as the reason that all the feedback is highly compartmentalized by gadget, software product, etc. Does she actually read this stuff that she writes? If so, does she not see how bass-ackwards that is, especially in relation to everyday people asking a simple question: how do I tell your company how you can make a product or service better so that I will continue to use it, be happy using it, and recommend it to friends and family? Or is it that MS employees are so steeped in the corporate culture that they think this kind of self-serving excuse is a defense? It isn't.

IBM used to be known as "Big Blue" back when they ruled the world. We need a nickname for Microsoft quickly.....I think it won't be too long until they are our parents' and grandparents' tech company of choice, while we migrate en masse to the next, more user-friendly company that will soon come along. May I suggest Big Lame for this nickname? We need a nickname to refer to MS by other than expletives when we run into more of their corporate double-speak drivel.

HERE, HERE!!!! Ashley, you and your corporate overlords should very carefully read the concluding paragraph by the OP:

"The original question was not motivated by a specific product, I was simply asking if there is a single, well organised place to go to provide feedback on all Microsoft products (I used the Apple site as an example because I was hoping there would be a MS equivalent). Clearly this is not the case, and instead the feedback mechanisms are a convoluted mess. I think earlier in the thread you said something to the effect of it would not be reasonable for MS to have a feedback site equivalent to Apple's because MS has a much larger portfolio of products and services. Actually, I think this is a reason why it would be more important for MS to have a single page which acts as an easy to use conduit to feedback options (*not tech support or customer service*) for all the products and services."