Which dead Microsoft product would you like to see brought back for Halloween?

Windows 10 Mobile Home screen
Windows 10 Mobile Home screen (Image credit: Windows Central)

It's the spookiest time of the year, Halloween. In honor of the holiday, we have a horrific poll this weekend. We'd like to know which Microsoft product or service you'd like to see brought back from the dead. From MSN Messenger to the Windows 10 Start menu, Microsoft has a kill count higher than Michael Myers. In fact, it was difficult to keep the list of options short enough to make a functional poll. So: If you could pick just one item to have Microsoft resurrect, which would it be?

We expect Windows Phone to take the lion's share of the votes, but there are some other beloved Microsoft services that have been buried over the years. Many miss Windows Media Center being the center of the living room. There are still Zune enthusiasts, including one fan who made a digital coffee book dedicated to the history of the music player. Others mourned the end of Minecraft Earth.

If your favorite dead Microsoft product or service didn't make the list, please share it in the comments below. If you want to take a trip down memory lane, you can check out Killed by Microsoft for a complete list of everything the company has axed over the years.

Some Microsoft services are already honoring the spirit of Halloween. The Kinect is being used by ghost hunters looking to search out the undead. Some claim that the camera can track "skeletal figures that aren't there." We can't verify that claim, but we can confirm that it worked well with Sonic Free Riders, one of the favorite Kinect games of our news editor Robert Carnevale.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.