Bill Gates sent a message to a group of Microsoft executives in 2003, describing more than an hour spent trying to download two simple items: Moviemaker and the Digital Plus Package. He never got either one.
The Message
The note, sent Wednesday, January 15, 2003, at 10:05 AM, went to Jim Allchin, with Chris Jones, Bharat Shah, Joe Peterson, Will Poole, Brian Valentine, and Anoop Gupta copied in. The subject line: “Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame.”
Gates says plainly that he was disappointed at how usability in Windows had gotten worse, and that the teams responsible were not paying attention to the problem. He then lays out, step by step, what happened when he tried to use Microsoft.com the day before.
A Website That Would Not Appear
Gates says the download page timed out five times before it came up. He describes the page as taking so long to appear that it could not be used at all. When the page finally came up, Moviemaker was not among the top five items shown, so he opened a list of 45 more.
He found the names on that list hard to understand. He compared them to a long, awkward file path, saying they made even a badly organized folder path seem clear by comparison. He typed “moviemaker” into the search box and got nothing back. He typed “movie maker,” with a space, and got nothing back either.
Gates says he then wrote directly to Amir to ask where the Moviemaker download was, and whether it existed at all. The full name, Amir Majidimehr, appears later in the exchange, in Poole’s forward. Gates was told that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated, and that he needed to use the main search box instead, entering “movie maker” rather than “moviemaker.”
Into Windows Update
That search led not to a download button but to instructions pointing him toward Windows Update. Gates found this odd. Once there, Windows Update told him he needed a set of controls first, then a scan of his machine.
The scan flagged 17 megabytes of files as critical, despite what he understood to be a move toward smaller updates delivered in pieces. The download itself was fast, Gates says, but the install took six minutes, during which the machine could not be used for anything else. He was then told to reboot, a step he questioned since he reboots his machine every night regardless. The reboot cleared out his open Outlook session.
Back at Microsoft.com, Gates found he had to select a folder labeled WindowsXP, even though Windows Update already knew he was running Windows XP. Inside, he finally found Moviemaker and downloaded it. The install again took several minutes.
Then a new prompt appeared: he also needed Windows Media Series 9. That download presented a choice between “Open” and “Save,” with no guidance on which to pick. The install for that piece took seven minutes.
A List Full of Extra Items
After all that, Gates checked his list of installed software to confirm Moviemaker was there.
It was not.
Instead, he found what he called an absolute mess: items labeled Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, and several more items he did not recognize. He also found listings that read only “Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information,” and others showing just a number, like Q810655, with no explanation attached.
He says this list had once been one of the few parts of Windows that worked well, and asks who decided to ruin it, adding that the file system no longer worked well either, and that the settings behind it were just as bad.
Giving Up
With Moviemaker still missing, Gates says he turned instead to the Digital Plus Package. That process asked him to enter personal details, then repeatedly cleared the form and made him type the same information again, five times, by his account, before he stopped trying.
More than an hour in, Gates says he had not installed Moviemaker, had not gotten the Plus package, and had a software list full of extra items he did not want. He compares the experience to other low points in Windows he had seen before, naming Windows Network places and error messages tied to 802.11 wireless setup. He closes by saying he expects more feedback once he actually gets to use the software.
That afternoon, at 1:27 PM, Will Poole forwarded the note to Amir Majidimehr and Chris Jones, with Dave Fester and Rick Thompson copied in. Poole told them a list of fixes was needed for the websites, for Windows Update, and for Windows itself, and that owners for each fix should be named, pointing back to what Gates had raised.
Key facts:
– Message sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 10:05 AM
– Forwarded reply sent: same day, 1:27 PM
– Website timeouts before the download page appeared: 5
– Additional download names shown beyond the first 5: 45
– File size flagged as critical during the update scan: 17 megabytes
– Install time for the first set of updates: 6 minutes
– Install time for Windows Media Series 9: 7 minutes
– Failed attempts to enter information for the Digital Plus Package: 5
The exchange surfaced as part of Internal Tech Emails, a publication that shares internal tech industry emails found in public records. Whether the problems Gates described were fixed, and how soon, is not addressed anywhere in the exchange itself.
Source: techemails.com