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.