I took my parents to the Microsoft Visitor Center because he is an avid fan of Microsoft and computer products. The visitor center also appealed to my mom because of the pretty decorations. There were small cherry blossom replica's that were lit up in blue lights. It was very pretty. They had a nice time exploring the new products and took a picture with the Microsoft logo near the entrance. The Visitor Center is quite small but still fun. I appreciated that Microsoft offers the space since other big companies in the area don't. read more

Great resource for "I'm a PC" merchandise. Excellent resource if you are a Microsoft employee looking for cheap software. Crappy resource if you are a regular Joe looking for a good deal. Let me elaborate: Laptop bag ========= Marshalls - $30 Micro$oft - $90 Duffel bag ======== Marshalls - $25/30 Micro$oft - $90 T-shirts/Sweatshirts ================ Any clothing store - $20 Microsoft - starting at $40 Zunes ===== Who cares? Who uses that crap these days? read more

This review is from the perspective of a non-Microsoft employee. I've been to my fair share of company stores, and this is by far, one of the BEST. First off, the store has two sections: software (for employees only) and non-techware (e.g. shirts, water bottles, pens, etc.). My review is for the latter only. The best thing is the pricing. Some of the other reviews say it's "overpriced," but comparatively, I think most of the gear is VERY well priced. You can get a giant coffee mug with the Surface logo for $3.95 (a similar mug at Apple's company store is about $10). Most of the t-shirts range between $15-$20. There's also a sale section. The variety is also great. Aside from what I mentioned earlier, some other things you can get: beanies (8+ designs/colors), plastic sunglasses, badge holders, backpacks, umbrellas, notebooks, baby clothes, mousepads, headbands... If you want it, they probably have it! A fun place to visit if you're a Microsoft fan. Check out the mini Visitor Center across the hall too. :) P.S. There is free parking in designated Visitor spots. read more

Well it's a nice place though. The people there are nice and the environment is nice. The reason I gave 3 stars because it doesn 't worth to visit specificlly. It's just like a Microsoft store in the malls. Selling xboxs and laptops. You can try the VR glasses and Dbox, too. But I expect more though... read more

This is a review of me actually visiting the visitor center unlike other folks who rated this place so low while not even visiting... Had a fun time checking out the visitor center and Microsoft campus. unlike many other high profile companies such as fb, google, apple, yelp? most of these companies don't have a visitor center and tours are usually only done if your special or know someone within the company. Getting here is pretty easy and the microsoft campus is huge. Free parking and before you enter the visitor center you can take a nice picture of the company logo. Once inside check in at the front desk and get a cool visitor's badge which basically allows you access to the gift store and visitor center. The visitor center basically reminds me of a larger version of a microsoft store you'd see at the mall. As for the company store, its really large and you can find microsoft items you normally couldn't find elsewhere like unique tshirts to magnets etc. If your a mindcraft fan there's plenty of goodies for you here. Overall, not sure why people didn't like this place...its free, they give you access that other big companies would never give, and their company store has unique items you couldn't get elsewhere. If your a tech geek in the seattle area definitely a place worth checking out. read more

Microsoft Company Store - map of the visitor center - Computers Near Me - Redmond, Washington

Who knew this existed!? Located in Building 92, going inside is a love letter to the empire built by Paul Allen and Bill Gates... and by extension, tech in general. The parking is free and easy; just park in any visitor space. Once inside, there's an intimate museum/showroom space dedicated to Microsoft over the past 40 years that almost doubles as an interactive advertisement with touchable devices, plenty of coffee kiosks, and, of course, a Microsoft Store (where you can find all kinds of Microsoft-branded souvenirs, both high and low tech). Honestly (and surprisingly), I've always liked Microsoft's showroom concepts better than Apple's. Microsoft understands the big-TV-screen-as-backdrop thing... where Apple merely installs some backlit static posters printed on acrylic (I expected better, Apple!). The entire visit will likely only take 30 minutes to an hour, but once you're finished, you can hop over to the Commons in a neighboring building (Microsoft's campus-style cafeteria with a plethora of both food and shopping options). A cool tribute to Microsoft, especially if you know anyone who works at MS. It's all designed to instill excitement over the past, present and future of technology and, of course, this very prestigious company... and, I must say, even though I've lived most of my life not even knowing this place existed, it does a pretty good job. read more

First of all, it is hard to find parking. We drove around for 20 minutes before a spot was available. There are no signs indicating where additional parking or lots may be. The signs in the visitor spots say you must display a registration. My husband sat in the car while I went in to see what I needed. There were no signs at the entrance for where to go, and the receptionist desk near the door had no idea what I was asking for. I waited 10 minutes at a desk down the hall (marked as "Visitor Center") and the lady apologized and said that registration is not required. Once we started looking around, I was surprised how small it was. I was expecting to be impressed. The coolest display there was not even Microsoft stuff. It was a display of how communication has developed since the 1800's (first camera, typewriter, telephone, television, atari, computer). The rest was just PCs, tablets and phones. As other reviewers stated, you may as well just go to Best Buy. The XBOX One displays glitched out and one did not even load. They had some facial recognition software which started out fun, but kept resetting itself. At the end when you have decorated your face, it gave the option to post to FB or email to yourself, but there was no keyboard available to type in your info. boo. We walked away frustrated. read more

This place is awesome if you're in need of the legit stuff with the caveat that you needz them employee discountz. The store itself isn't filled with things you really need - mostly things you'd find at a college career fair... pens, toys, shirts, mugs... that kind of stuff. Now, the good stuff is locked in the back. Games, programs, mice, keyboards...all at discounted prices to employees. Got MS 2007 around $30 thanks to my hubby's friend who works there. Find yourself an employee!!! The visitors' center is pretty cool - lots of stuff to play with and large screens to play games on. =) read more

I've been a Microsoft user for years and still will be, but the Visitor Center is a major disappointment. If you want to be inspired by Microsoft technology, you're better off going to a Best Buy store. Half of the demo computers in Visitor Center were flickering, not responding to the mouse or just crashed. One of the tablets kept rotating 90 degrees ever 10 seconds. The Surface table's were also acting buggy. The only thing that worked well was the Kinect...my wife enjoyed it. Seriously Microsoft, this was an embarrassment, and my friends that I drug there to see the great Microsoft haven't stopped laughing. Can you get an intern to at least man the Visitor Center and fix minor problems as they happen? The Microsoft store across the hall was ok, but even had iPhone/iPad chargers (really?). Best part was the Gears of War OCC trike was there for viewing...which almost made the trip worth it. If you want to be inspired by Microsoft on your Redmond visit, drive around the campus (it's impressive), don't stop at the Visitor Center (very disappointing), and if you can, find a Microsoft employee that can show you something cool. For true inspiration, go into downtown Seattle and visit the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Now that was amazing, inspiring, and made you want to be a part of what they were doing. read more

I am NOT a MS FTE. Ok, for those of you done reading this...move on. I am "his" wife, thanks. And "he" loves my "I *in the shape of an anatomical heart* Geeks" shirt that I got here. I see the reviews and everyone is all grouchy about the tech aspect of this store and how it blows and Xbox junk, etc. That's not me. My husband can get in and get the keyboard, mouse, programs, games stuff we/he needs and I can peruse the junk the rest of the people are griping about....the pens, the keychain holders, and well...seemingly bins of junk. But I love it, just the same. And yet, I've learned a few lessons. I'm done buying the USB connectable cords that will allow me to connect MORE USB devices that look like colorful worms from the bins. Going to the Microsoft Company Store is great for the apparel, the things you need and want for your family to "represent". Again. I'm not the techie in my household, and this works for me just perfectly. read more

For the two weekdays I am in the area the Visitor Center is closed. While the disclaimer on their website: "Please call in advance to ensure we are open as we occasionally close for private events." suggests the center might not be open for a few hours some days, this is obviously not the case. As getting there is a challenge in itself, due to lack of signage, you definitely want to call ahead to ensure they are open before making the journey. It's a shame that a software company cannot find a better way to communicate the hours that they are open to the public. read more

I went in there to look for one of those "I'm a PC" stickers for my mac so I can actually bring my mac to work inside MS without getting death rays. Unfortunately they ran out of those stickers. Everything else was just overpriced to me. read more

It is amazing all of this because of one man vision. Thank you Bill Gate for providing all of these people jobs.

I found this place to be pretty cool. The building is a little hard to find (so use your Directions feature on your Yelp app to help you). Plus I definitely recommend that you call ahead to make sure the center is open. We went there on 3 different occasions only to find that it was closed for employee events. Once we finally got to tour this place, however, we found it very informative. There is lots of hands on activities for adults and kids. Finally, we found a place where the Kinects actually works correctly. I sure haven't been able to get my Kinects to work at home. For the first part of my computer life I was a huge fan of Microsoft products...until I upgraded my desktop to the dreadful Windows 8....which then caused me to go and buy my first Mac. :) But anyway, I found this place interesting, it's free, and you can get through it in 30 minutes or less. read more

Microsoft Company Store - Visitor's Center - Computers Near Me - Redmond, Washington

I wish I could give 3.5 stars. The 3.5 stars is accurate. Overall we enjoyed our visit and but felt that more could be done. First, it was not straightforward to get here. A bit surprising that Microsoft did not work with the local municipal government to get better road access to its headquarter. The visitor center is tiny given the size of the company's market cap (currently at over $1T). It was not immediately clear that Boardwalk is the only restaurant (though a nice one) open to the public; we had to ask a lot of people to figure this out. Overall, Microsoft does not feel as vibrant and forward looking as the more modern Amazon across Lake Washington. read more

I recently HAD to buy a laptop that uses Microsoft Windows. I am a hardcore Apple products user, with iMacs, iPhone, MacBook, iPad Pro and Apple TV. I bit the bullet and bought a touchscreen HP laptop as we could only run one particular piece of trading software on a Windows based computer. What freaking nightmare! Is this what Windows users put up with every day? No wonder the sales of Prozac, Xanax and opioids are off the charts! What a frustrating experience. Nothing works intuitively and everything that I tried to install took a few tries to get the sequence just right. It's a touchscreen HP and that is good but it only supports one band of WiFi and I was certainly not going to pay more than $400 for this one application use. So I bought a network adapter and tried to install a driver for it online. What a chore! Thankfully a nice lady in the Philippines named Grace who works for Netgear, talked me off the ledge and helped me install the device, so now I have 100 MBPS speeds on my WiFi, critical for our trading platform. But, and here's the rub - if you shut the laptop down it takes at least five minutes to go through the power down sequence, and and took 10 minutes to reboot. What a complete POS. I'm not sure who is to blame here - HP or MS but between the two they should figure something out. Nothing is easy and just opening an application, the only application I have installed on this system, takes a few minutes. The Apple products are ready to use as soon you you hit the power switch. Hopefully the trading platform we are using will make an apple compatible application soon!!! Please !!!! read more

This is the first time my parents have come here. They are very novel about Microsoft's products. The exhibition is not big, but to introduce the history of Microsoft's development. The staff is also very friendly, and actively interact with everyone. read more

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Unless you're coming with an employee, don't bother. Everything on the public side is overpriced junk. The employee side has a limited selection of games, software and peripherals for a fraction of retail prices. 360 systems were available but a better deal can be had online. Thumbs up otherwise. read more

I'm not ethnic enough to enjoy going to MS and buy more things I don't need and feed Bill Gates more $$. But it is what it is. If you like stress relief balls, weird baby gifts, that extra mug with the MS logo on it, then this is your place. The good items were in an area for employees only, so at least this place had some use. I liked the Welcome Center much more. There's lots of computers to play with, games to play on and a giant life size "I-pad" wanna be with some apps. We played virtual checkers for awhile..that was a great timekiller. You don't have to check in at the reception area like the parking sign say you do. read more

I think if you are a big fan of Microsoft and are don't have to drive too far it's worth checking out. I don't think it's all that exciting but it's interesting. When you get to the visitors center you will need to register your car (you need your license plate number). Parking is free just make sure you register. The sort of "museum" area is interesting but for me just spending 30 minutes was enough. There are a lot of interactive activities and games that you can play which will keep you busy for much more than 30 minutes. The also have all the different Microsoft phones, surface pros.. and more on display. The gift shop had a lot of different items to purchase at very reasonable prices. Many things were on sale. You can get a T-shirt for $10.00 and with a Yelp check in you can get 10% off (the cashier wasn't familiar with a Yelp coupon but I asked a cashier next to her and he knew what to do). It's also fun to take a photo near the Microsoft sign outside the visitors center. Not spectacular but interesting and worth a visit if nearby. read more

Great selection of Microsoft branded merch, from pens and mugs to shirts and mouse pads. Fairly cramped space when people get off work to shop. They were running major 50% discounts so I stocked up on holiday gifts. They seem to carry some inexpensive and kinda cheap looking products. A lot of it is just regularly stuff with a small Microsoft logo printed. I got some nice mugs, some carabineers, and a candy gift set that looked nice. All in all, a great experience, but wish they had more quality products with nicer logos. read more

We came here in early March 2016 to check out the Microsoft campus and buy some cool MS things from their store. :) What a treat to be able to see their latest products on display and get a fun Microsoft magnet from the store. They have so many neat logo'ed items that you can buy; they store is huge! Plenty of visitor parking in the lot. read more

Microsoft is my favorite company For my birthday a couple years ago i got a microsoft shirt. I wore it for 6 months but then i lost it. I am still finding it Review: The microsoft store sells microsoft merch Things i like The microsoft bag Microsoft shirt I will now rate it by stats Speed: 10 Quality: 10 Price: N/A Location: 10 Products: 10 read more

So, the visitor center could use some more pizzaz. There are a couple really cool technologies there. If you go, use your network to find a friend who works there and walk around a bit. We got lucky and had with a friend there. The campus is surprisingly hip and beautiful. This place is definitely worth hitting up on a trip to Seattle. read more

pretty nice visitor center. had a wall of xbox games, and other tables with surface tablets. one section had cameras that did AR and facial recognition and stuff. I played Just Dance with Kinect for about 15 minutes. the store just had all kinds of microsoft gear. Full time employees get discounts on Microsoft licenses. read more

Came out to Seattle on business and visiting Microsoft was on my bucket list. Drove over an hour to Redmond to get there. Don't waste your time. It's not a dedicated visitors center, It's a small area on the first floor of building 92 where employees can get their work I'd badges and a cafeteria which visitors cannot use. There is a collection of interactive displays of their products most of which you and I probably have at home, like a surface tablet, Xbox, mindcraft etc.. Gift store is a bunch of shirts, pens and other overpriced items many of which I think Microsoft gives out at conferences. I found it strange that there is no software for sale and no hardware either. Only employees can buy software for some strange reason and all of that is locked away in a special area where you need a badge to get into. You would think that they would have a full Microsoft store there and sell all their products to the public. Wouldn't it be cool say you bought it at Microsoft? Too bad. Also. Be warned you MUST give them your ID, Like a DRIVERS LICENSE, or other official Id, to enter the visitor center part. They won't just take your name down or just let you in like every other visitor center in the world. They must have your ID for some odd reason. Never been to a visitor center where you needed ID to enter. What they are doing with this information combined with all the facial recognition data and pictures they take of you while you are in there is beyond me. They must be doing something with this they are not telling you to insist on the ID. In any case, the whole visitor center was a disappointment, and a waste of an afternoon for me. I have been a big fan of Microsoft products for years and still am, but the visitor center was a waste of time. If you want to say you visited their "Visitor Center" in Redmond, then you can check that off your bucket list, otherwise go to your local Microsoft store if you have one, it will be just as informative and entertaining without the creepy ID and security requirements to get in. read more

My time here was great, good memories. I'll miss everyone and hope to see everybody again on next visit. Sayonara. I'd say the store itself is great for visitors from abroad and those who have interest in clothing and mini items for souvenir from Microsoft also the visitor center (meuseum) http://wilytvofficial.com read more

After many years of doing great, Microsoft has finally done the unthinkable. In February 2018 my laptop finally quit. in march I went to Office depo and bought a new Lenovo Win 10 and the card for Microsoft Office Home and Student for win 10. I had nothing but trouble through april. Reloaded WIN 10 three times. Finally had the hard drive formatted and Win 10 reloaded. No more win 10 problems. NOW the real problems started and the stone wall continues. They only have part time overseas non English speaking "Customer service obstructionists" on the phone at very odd hours and then they return your call at odd times and no interpreter to help. Robbing bill Gates does not need to continue with this stealing money. read more

The Visitors Parking signs say you have to check in with the front desk but you really dont have to. The only person that was friendly there was the lady at the front desk when we first walked in. The lady at the Visitors Center desk was doing something on the computer and seemed uninterested in answering any questions. There should be wondering embassadors in the room to explain the technology. Its not welcoming at all. My son and I were playing the Xbox One game and both agreed that all the options or extras on the games should be unlocked. Only one character was available on Killer Instinct which made it hard to determine who was who in the game. I asked a gentleman there who was interacting with an interesting display to show me what he was doing and he said he didn't know that he was just guessing. This place could definitely be improved upon, I really expexted more. No welcome in the Company Store either. Everyone was busy doing a task or just hanging out behind the counter. My Son said he wanted to work at Microsoft one day, I told him maybe he can get their Customer in shape one day. read more

It is free and they let you try all the toys. Not a huge visitor area and can be done in 1 hour if you are into tech and games. It is a huge campus, the visitor center is building 92, and number is still going up when I was leaving the campus. read more

As a tourist, I thought the Microsoft Company Store and Welcome Center was very nice. Yes, the prices are a bit inflated to take advantage of the tourist crowd, but honestly, who else besides tourists and employees are really going to be coming here. It was a nice place and definitely worth stopping by. read more

Hubby is an IT guy, so I thought he'd really enjoy this. We could not find parking...at all. He talked to security inside the building who said park anywhere...even staff. Then go inside and tell security where you parked, license plate and car make/color, pick up a pass and you are good to go to the store. Unfortunately, the Microsoft store at the mall is better than this place. read more

We dropped my sister in law off for work and decided to pop in to the visitor's center because it seemed like that would be a friendly place to learn more about what kind of innovative work they are doing at Microsoft without bothering people in their place of business or being somewhere we were not supposed to be...we kept our stay short because the staff was rude and made us feel like we were not supposed to be there. If you don't want visitors in the visitors center then put up a sign that says restricted access to private tours or something. the displays they had out looked interesting and interactive, but we were a little unsettled after the interrogation at the front desk so we just walked through pretty quickly. Very disappointing. read more

Fun place to stop by when you want to show friends and family Microsoft! Lots of fun cool facts to learn about the company!

As a Microsoft employee who has shown people around MSFT campus several times, here's a list of places you can hit up during your visit. - Outside Building 26/B27: stony sign of Microsoft - Microsoft Commons: it is like the student union on Microsoft campus, featuring a variety of eats and interesting decor in a shopping-mall style. You'd like to be with an employee to get in though. - Building 92: Microsoft Visitor Center, Microsoft Company Store, Microsoft Library are all there. read more

According to employees, the parking lot is usually close to full. There is a good selection of merchandise. Clothing seems to be one of the big items they carry. Pricing is high. Nothing is on sale. A few items is on clearance. I didn't buy anything. Didn't think it would be cool to be walking around in Microsoft socks. read more

The visitors center is one of the only indoor places on campus you can go without an employee. I think Janet G. described it perfectly when she said the visitors center is "a hands-on science museum." I wouldn't describe is as an Apple store though...hey Microsoft has the Microsoft store a few doors down in Bellevue Square! There is a row of exhibits where you can see the machines that inspired the modern-day version of different Microsoft products. There is also an old photo of the original Microsoft teams and a number of demos and displays on their newer products such as Windows Phone, Kinect and Microsoft Surface. You can touch most things which is fun for the kid in me. The layout is well-done and its a fun way to learn the history of Microsoft. The Microsoft store is ok. Expensive. I liked the teddy bears. haha. The library is also in this building.Its small and one of numerous libraries and you need to go with an employee. It was fun for my social sciences-self to see all the tech geek books though. If you were planning on making a trip out of just the visitors center, let me be honest: you'll be here maybe an hour max. But go ahead and check out the rest of campus (outside) and take a picture with the sign if you want (I've never done that; mostly because I live in Seattle so it seems weird. haha.)! read more

These people are so obsessed with financial gain that they do not bother to vet their own curriculums that they send off to schools. My current Python Programming I class, with a course mandated by Microsoft, has activities and teaching material plagued with spelling/grammar mistakes and seemingly-unintentional syntax errors - IN THE EXAMPLE CODE. The definitions provided for numerous terms are vague or just this side of right - using the wrong words for the right concept. As a Python programmer of almost eight years, it is very frustrating to me that Microsoft is educating thousands with incorrect material, under the guise of "education" and encouraging students new to the field of computer science. The only redeeming quality is that this course "teaches" Python 3- knowing Microsoft, I was frankly quite surprised when I learned that we weren't going to be forced through Python 2. read more

well, when you MUST HAVE Microsoft chapstick, or else face the ridicule of your friends for using inferior, 8-bit, low-technology lip protection, then come here and get it. they got everything you can imagine with Microsoft written on it. i didn't find the Windows condoms though. some stuff that was really cool: Halo action figures. I was there to pick up some software. fun place. would like to go back and spend more time. REALLY hard to find for the average consumer of chic geek goods. call your microsoft friend and meet them there... read more

Anyone off the street can come to the store and buy swag type items. To purchase discounted software and hardware must be a MS employee or with one. The new store is a cool facility, and the near by Microsoft Museum is also worth checking out (also open to the public) read more