I've been here many times, as I lead tour groups. ...

I've been here many times, as I lead tour groups. They are always disappointed. Then again, why does Microsoft need a visitor's center when everyone already knows about them?! So, it's a nice gesture - at best. Here is a basic rundown of what to expect:

There is a quick museum style window with a timeline of a few items including the atari and VHS stuff. Then there is a posterboard type picture of the original Microsoft guys - Gates is so young! Then a pic of them as a team now. There are interesting facts about each person. Then you proceed to a bank of laptops for use, I've done a few emails there, but it seems that often a compute isn't connected to the internet and you have to go to another one (if available). Then there is a small group of phones and mp3 players etc, and a few video game consoles where games can be played (that seems to be where all the students end up until it's time to go). There are a few other displays that have some interesting features to them, but nothing mind-blowing or amazing like one would expect from Microsoft.

Across the hall is a tourist/trinket store where you can buy your shirt/pens/waterbottle etc. That's it. What I wish is that they at least had a cool 'Microsoft' displayed somewhere in front of the building or something. My groups always want to take a group photo at Microsoft, but there aren't any decent places to do this that actually have 'Microsoft' displayed where we can all gather around it, smile and show our friends/family back home where we were.

Anyway, I don't fault MS for a lame visitor's center. They don't need it. I appreciate at least that they have something - and if they charged for it they would definitely need it to be a lot more interactive and interesting. It's about what I'd expect for something free and unnecessary for their business success.