Why Does Microsoft Abandons Its Own Software?

[Scorbing]

Recently I have noticed quite few things about Microsoft and their desire to update their products. I will mention a few:

Widgets: When Vista came out, the promised us all kinds of widgets and things for the sidebar and the OS itself...Never happened.

The widgets are now extinct from their website.

Microsoft DVD Maker: You would think that such a great piece of software would be given updates from time to time. By that I mean, they should have the decency to offer more themes for creating DVDs on the application, etc. There hasn't been an update to Microsoft DVD Maker in years.

Microsoft Movie Maker: Seriously, this application is a joke. No wonder people prefer Apple's own Movie Maker to make videos. What was Microsoft thinking about when they created this? The UI is clunky and difficult to get around on. The program itself is not very stable. It is not very useful and it hasn't been updated with new features or tools since it came out. The average user will find this application completely useless once they try Apple's Movie Maker or any other video editor out there. Both Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft DVD Maker need a serious revamp and they need to be turned into 1 application so that it can work better.

Windows 7 Themes: What is going on in this department? Not a single theme on their page is attractive. I know 16 year olds that can make better themes than those on their website! Seriously? Look at all the beautiful themes people at Neowin make. You would figure after all these years, Microsoft would have learned their lesson from all these people who make such gorgeous themes and get a bit more creative. Microsoft needs to officially let the user customize the OS any way they want by allowing the use of non-Microsoft themes, instead of forcing the user to acquire third party applications like Universal Theme Patcher, VistaGlazz and UxStyle and could potentially cause a problem in the OS should a service pack come along that changes the main files that these appz crack.

What do you people think?

[bgjerlow]

Microsoft needs to officially let the user customize the OS any way they want by allowing the use of non-Microsoft themes, instead of forcing the user to acquire third party applications like Universal Theme Patcher, VistaGlazz and UxStyle and could potentially cause a problem in the OS should a service pack come along that changes the main files that these appz crack.

Couldn't agree more. An official Microsoft style builder would be the greatest thing since toast. But, most likely, it's never going to happen :/

As for Movie Maker, I don't get why Microsoft is even producing that anymore. At my school we only use Movie Maker in some VERY rare cases. Otherwise we use Adobe Premiere & similar. I don't know anyone who's a serious "movie maker" that uses Movie Maker. Application is just crap.

Never really used DVD Maker nor gadgets a lot. Created a few custom gadgets back in the day, but never really got into using them. Mostly due to the fact that most of them were ugly as hell.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Moved here from General Discussion.

And the most obvious reason is the same one other companies abandon software, either because they elect not to improve upon it (in Microsoft's case, because they'll probably face anti-trust cases) or because it didn't have the impact they expected it would have.

Edit: Certain companies have actually licensed the right to theme Windows, that's why Microsoft has a very basic theme system 'out of the box'.

[Soulsiphon]

Software lifecycle?

[Rigby]

You forgot "Ultimate Extras", though that's not technically a program. What a joke that whole thing was.

Movie Maker has been updated many times actually, the latest being Windows Live Movie Maker. The problem is it keeps getting worse in every release; they keep stripping out features. The live version is practically crippled compared to the one that shipped in XP. To be fair it was never really any good.

[Denis W. Veteran]

In defense of Windows 7's themes, they're actually pretty good - the wallpapers at least. For Aero, it's elegant enough that colour shifts are sufficient instead of a completely different visual style.

Agreed with your other points though. Biggest grind is with Windows Movie Maker and its move to LIve Movie Maker.

[Scorbing]

You forgot "Ultimate Extras", though that's not technically a program. What a joke that whole thing was.

Movie Maker has been updated many times actually, the latest being Windows Live Movie Maker. The problem is it keeps getting worse in every release; they keep stripping out features. The live version is practically crippled compared to the one that shipped in XP. To be fair it was never really any good.

Oh yes they have updated it, but it has been mainly bug fixes. No new features or UI enhancements. The application is an epic fail.

[Stoffel]

I guess MS does like so many other companies do

They make a lot and see what sticks, if there isn't enough interest then why continue the product

Specially because they give them away for free

[Scorbing]

I guess MS does like so many other companies do

They make a lot and see what sticks, if there isn't enough interest then why continue the product

Specially because they give them away for free

Yes but then again, how do they expect to get any interest if they don't update the product? I am quite sure that a lot of people were very interested in DVD Maker because it was easy to use and it did the job perfectly every time, but after a while, people like myself, get tired of the same DVD Themes over and over again. We want more features, more themes, more enhancements but MS has failed to deliver that and therefore people have probably lost interest on the application.

MS needs to get on the ball and update their products so that they don't become obsolete and useless.

[Aethec]

When a product doesn't have the success you hoped it'd have, you either discontinue it or pour tons of money into it. Most product aren't worth spending a lot of money on them...

[M_Lyons10]

Well, in fairness to Microsoft with the Gadgets (Which I did like), they are now pushing the same basic functionality in the Live Tiles of Windows 8, so what exactly would be the point of continuing Gadgets then?

As for the other things, sometimes software doesn't catch on and they move on to something else? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

[Dotdot]

Still sort the themes. If I see one more beveled bloody edge, or black text on a blue background Im gonna scream.

[yardmanflex]

Two worlds "anti-trust"

[Hum]

So I am free to sell Qbasic ? :laugh:

[greenwizard88]

Movie/DVD maker was last updated in 2011. 7/6/2011 according to Bing.

Widgets. They never took off, and Microsoft is discontinuing them in favor of metro.

Themes: This isn't linux, you can't have it your way. Microsoft never supported what you're proposing, why did you even list it with "unupdated" software?

[Scorbing]

Movie/DVD maker was last updated in 2011. 7/6/2011 according to Bing.

Widgets. They never took off, and Microsoft is discontinuing them in favor of metro.

Themes: This isn't linux, you can't have it your way. Microsoft never supported what you're proposing, why did you even list it with "unupdated" software?

So you are telling me that they can't update (create) new themes for Windows 7? What's so difficult about that?

[Stoffel]

Well, in fairness to Microsoft with the Gadgets (Which I did like), they are now pushing the same basic functionality in the Live Tiles of Windows 8, so what exactly would be the point of continuing Gadgets then?

As for the other things, sometimes software doesn't catch on and they move on to something else? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

This

[Quillz]

So you are telling me that they can't update (create) new themes for Windows 7? What's so difficult about that?

It's likely extremely low priority for them.

[fsX]

What do you people think?

You see, a little known secret about private companies is that they want to make as much money as possible and spend as little as possible. To that end, it doesn't make sense to continue investing in products/features that few people use.

[~Johnny]

Oh yes they have updated it, but it has been mainly bug fixes. No new features or UI enhancements. The application is an epic fail.

Windows Live Movie Maker was a big UI enhancement over Windows Movie Maker :p The last update for it added some more publishing options to web services and transitions / animations too. For a basic home user it works quite nicely :p It's not made to compete with any big moive making stdio, it's just a nice, quick, stable and simple movie maker.

Widgets were probably discontinued due to virtually nobody using them. No point continuing to support it.

I also reckon most of Microsoft's software teams are quite busy with Metro apps and Windows 8 at the moment - what with them writing Metro equivalents of a lot of the standard desktop apps. Probably the first time all the Windows apps have had such an overhaul at the same time in a looooong while.

[TAZMINATOR]

If you want to use the widgets, then use Rainmeter. Movie Maker has been moved to Live Movie Maker along with Live products such as Live Messenger.

If you hate default themes that Microsoft provides you, then you use the third party themes which can be found at Deviantart and other skins/themes sites. Microsoft do not care what you have on the Windows. If Microsoft do not want you to add stuff or change themes, then I suggest you find OS such as Linux.

If Microsoft has stopped producing or updating the movie maker, then you can find alternative maker.

Nothing to worry about. There are always new stuff coming up once the current products get stopped updating or whatever. Just like Napster got shut down and new music website popped up and go on.

[Fraud OS 11]

Well the good thing is they all still work even on Windows 8. :) The only Vista apps that don't work are Meeting Space and DreamScene (no that DreamScene hack doesn't count).

[Pikey]

I'm not bothered about any of what you have listed , but the biggest disappointment for me was when MS stopped developing 'Microsoft Money'!!

I'm still using the last version (UK/International .. which works fine by the way) and would have happily upgraded to newer versions had they carried on with it!

It's still a damn good program and a big puzzle to me why they stopped it.

[UndergroundWire]

Like most companies, it is a trial and error. Google does it, Apple does it and so on and so forth.

[the better twin]

I'm not bothered about any of what you have listed , but the biggest disappointment for me was when MS stopped developing 'Microsoft Money'!!

I'm still using the last version (UK/International .. which works fine by the way) and would have happily upgraded to newer versions had they carried on with it!

It's still a damn good program and a big puzzle to me why they stopped it.

I remember that. I was also quite a fan of Photo premium lol.