Microsoft Orwell Customer Experience Improvement Program

Posted on May 27, 2004 by David Terrell

So, I just got back from lunch. In my systray, there is an icon bearing the microsoft office logo.

First, I hover:

it says: “Microsoft Office Customer Experience Improvement Program”

Hmm, I remember something like that popping up a couple of days ago and asking me if I wanted to send anonymous data to microsoft about how I used office so it could make them better. No, not interested. I remember saying no.

Maybe I have to disable it again, how frustrating.

I single click it. Up pops one of those cartoon word-bubbles:

[i] Help Make Office Better! [X]
Want to learn about how you can improve the features you
use? click here to learn how…

Ok, that’s stupid. i double click it. Nothing.

I click the icon, then click in the bubble. Nothing.

I cannot get this fucking thing to go away. Still. It’s sitting there taunting me, driving me nuts.

Fucking god damn fuck. Google finds all kinds of information about it, but not what the process name is if I want to kill the goddamn thing…. Ergh. What a bunch of shit.

[Update: I just killed outlook and it went away. Hmm. Stupid crap...]

[Update 2: After restarting outlook and taking a crap, I came back to my desk to find the icon there again. This time clicking on it brought up the app and I was able to tell it -- again -- that I did not want it. I wonder if the last popup came from Excel and this from Outlook. Perhaps the different apps should share settings....]

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3 Responses to Microsoft Orwell Customer Experience Improvement Program

  1. Danny Howard says:
    May 28, 2004 at 12:22 pm

    Perhaps you need a dev machine and a “Windows Laptop” where the horrors of MS Office can be contained? Does that work for an all-Windows environment?

    -d

  2. dbt says:
    May 28, 2004 at 2:32 pm

    1: I only get one machine at work to use full-time. I have a test box sitting on my desk….

    2: the two tasks aren’t easily separated. Excel stuff is writing development documentation, for example (well, XML schemas).

  3. Leonid says:
    June 24, 2004 at 10:57 am

    In case you still need this.

    The following seems to work for me:
    In Outlook click Help then “Customer Feedback Options”. Select “No, I don’t wish to participate” radio box, click OK and exit Outlook via File/Exit to make sure that all settings are saved.
    Hope this helps,
    Leonid