I had repeatedly encountered useless links in Microsoft programs, and I knew Windows 10 was no exception to this. Here I was in the Display Colour Calibration applet, wondering what it exactly it does, when I saw a 'How do I calibrate my display?' link:

Display Colour Calibration

I thought the link would answer my question, but upon clicking it, I was shown the main support page for Windows 10 (containing no specific information about display calibration):

Windows 10 support

Confused, I thought I'd try searching for the question in the link I had just clicked. However, that only brought up irrelevant content:

A search for 'How do I calibrate my display?' on the Windows 10 support home page

Having just encountered one useless link, I thought I'd have a nose around for more. 'How does indexing affect searches?' was the next link I found:

Indexing Options

Wondering where it would take me, I clicked it, and was greeted by the general Windows 10 support page once again:

Windows 10 support

What about this link to 'Learn more about Pop-up Blocker'?

Internet Explorer Pop-up Blocker Settings

That one brings up content about SmartScreen Filter instead:

SmartScreen Filter FAQ

How about 'Tell me more about power plans'?

Power Options

That one takes us back to the now familiar Windows 10 support page:

Windows 10 support

Here's another link – 'How do I know what security settings are right for my computer?'

Security and Maintenance

And, perhaps unsuprisingly, it brings up the main Windows 10 support page again (though this time it wants me to 'share [my] experience'):

Windows 10 support

What about the Windows SmartScreen privacy statement?

Windows SmartScreen

Apparently, there isn't one:

We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found.

And, lastly, how about this link to 'tell me more about User Account Control settings'?

User Account Control Settings[1]

You guessed it – clicking it brings up the general Windows 10 support page:

Windows 10 support

That is just a selection of the useless links I found – there were plenty more. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect such links to go to specific content related to the link text itself. Instead, you often get a generic help page, where searching for the expected content yields nothing particularly relevant in most cases. A poor show in my view, and all of these were found simply through a few minutes of inquisitive clicking around.


  1. The window in this screenshot looks blurry because of some incompatibility with Windows 10's standard DPI-scaling mode. ↩︎