In 2009, Microsoft made it a focus of the Windows 7 user experience guidelines to reduce pointless notifications. They point out notifications like the classic “There are unused icons on your desktop” as being in the Windows XP Hall of Shame™. Seriously, it’s in there: https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/uxguide/mess-notif

In 2026, Windows interrupts you to ask if you want to clean up printers you haven’t used in a while. The intent is unclear (which printers?), there are too many choices, and it stays visible until you click an option.

For a good while, Microsoft were limping their way to good UX, and this doc was finally a clear set of guidelines. Now, it feels like they’ve slipped back into the Windows XP Hall of Shame™ era, and any good UX they happen to come up with is an accident.

#windows #windows11