MSDN
Ranked 2 of 6 online documentations by recommenders
Developers recommend its well-organized documentation and code examples, and the offline CD library of the past. Critics say search is poor and older material has gone missing.
Developers recommend its well-organized documentation and code examples, and the offline CD library of the past. Critics say search is poor and older material has gone missing.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Thorough, well-organized documentation
“at least the MSDN library (the entire stack of CDs & DVDs it was on) had extensive documentation”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Type-safe HTML templating in Zig” “MSDN is surprisingly good, understandable, well organized, lots of examples.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “HelloAssembly: The smallest possible complete Windows application (2021)” “the documentation available was excellent”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Windows NT/OS2 Design Workbook” Lots of code examples
“MSDN is surprisingly good, understandable, well organized, lots of examples.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “HelloAssembly: The smallest possible complete Windows application (2021)” “The value was the multiple CDs of MSDN documentation and code samples”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Echo – Fable-level results at 1/3 the cost using open-weight models” “MSDN, another great site with its examples”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “How do functions like alloca allocate memory from the stack?” - Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “How do functions like alloca allocate memory from the stack?”
Offline CD library for programming
“at least the MSDN library (the entire stack of CDs & DVDs it was on) had extensive documentation”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Type-safe HTML templating in Zig” “it was reasonable to program offline. We should bring that model back.”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Hello, me. It's been a while” “The value was the multiple CDs of MSDN documentation and code samples”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Echo – Fable-level results at 1/3 the cost using open-weight models” - Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Echo – Fable-level results at 1/3 the cost using open-weight models”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Search is poor and hard
“MSDN search is awful and the bits of info you need are scattered across three different articles, none of which link directly to each other”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “AI Agent Bankrupted Their Operator While Trying to Scan DN42” “god is it a quest to find anything in there.”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Why a program doesn't work when run from a batch file, but works when clicked” Expensive subscription prices
“You'd be up for a thousand dollars annually an MSDN academic subscription just to get Visual Basic.”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Childhood Computing” “their access prices for the services in the late 90s and early 00s were eyewatering”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Windows NT/OS2 Design Workbook” Old versions and resources disappearing
“The VS2008 version purged all API information regarding pre-Windows 2000.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Why Castrol Honda Superbike crashes on (most) modern systems” “Today's Docs site seems to keep info only for a few versions.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Why Castrol Honda Superbike crashes on (most) modern systems” “now most resources are either gone or unfindable”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence”
Other online documentations people recommend
The four most recommended other online documentations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ArchWiki | 86 | 4 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| MSDNThis page | 17 | 10 | 63% | 10 | — | — |
| Gentoo Wiki | 9 | 3 | 75% | 3 | — | — |
| Anthropic documentation | 5 | 4 | 56% | 4 | — | — |
| Consumer Rights Wiki | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
25 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“god is it a quest to find anything in there.”
“at least the MSDN library (the entire stack of CDs & DVDs it was on) had extensive documentation”
“I have wonderful lucid dreams about MSDN.”
“MSDN is surprisingly good, understandable, well organized, lots of examples.”
“another great site with its examples”
“MSDN, another great site with its examples”
“it was reasonable to program offline. We should bring that model back.”
“those msdn cd's were very valuable back then”
“The value was the multiple CDs of MSDN documentation and code samples”
“MSDN search is awful and the bits of info you need are scattered across three different articles, none of which link directly to each other”
“You'd be up for a thousand dollars annually an MSDN academic subscription just to get Visual Basic.”
“NT4, MSDN, DirectX. they weren't perfect, but the UX was amazing.”
“This is one thing that MSDN got right”
“provided nothing compellingly useful that wasn't available in entry-level or mid-tier MSDN subscriptions”
“their access prices for the services in the late 90s and early 00s were eyewatering”
“the documentation available was excellent”
“Not sure I had got value from it except seeing the "pipes" software OpenGL screensaver”
“Thanks to my MSDN sub I then had the necessary bits to build a proper MS server cluster”
“MDN and MSDN are my favorite documentation sites.”
“Especially because I see the MSDN docs are rolling out new "Did you want to generate a sample of this?"”
“now most resources are either gone or unfindable”
“I used MSDN and the MSDN blogs to keep up to date with Visual BASIC 6.0 updates.”
“The VS2008 version purged all API information regarding pre-Windows 2000.”
“Today's Docs site seems to keep info only for a few versions.”
“You have to subscribe to their CD of MSDN articles to appreciate how info they put out for their products”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.