Orange County’s two Microsoft stores are the best place to explore the company’s revamped ecosystem of products and services.
The rapidly evolving company started to do things differently in 2012, including revamping its entire product line, and Microsoft’s locations in the Mission Viejo mall (opened October 2009) and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa (opened March 2011) offer training, customization, hands-on product use and even some deals not available anywhere else.
Microsoft’s Windows is easily customized by manufacturers, but in its stores computers running Windows 7 are specifically configured as “Signature” devices, meaning they are stripped of unnecessary software that is often pre-installed by manufacturers and optimized so they boot quickly. Microsoft has begun offering the Xbox 360 game system under two-year contracts for $100 exclusively at the company’s stores.
There are 20 Microsoft locations in the United States, and they are sure to be among the best places to learn about the company’s long-awaited Windows 8 software upgrade and the computers that will run it, including the new Surface tablet. It’s also a great place to check out phones running Microsoft’s software or to experience Kinect, the company’s motion-sensing gaming accessory that also responds to voice commands.
Microsoft offers an answer desk for technical questions, personal-training memberships and a workshop area at the back of the store for customers to drop in and learn about products, such as how to do specific things in Excel or Powerpoint. Though computers purchased at the store come with a manufacturer’s warranty, the Microsoft store also offers 90 days of telephone technical support and one year of service coverage at the store.
