Today, I got this tweet by Patrick Kettner asking how to submit an IE bug report:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/reybango">reybango</a> how does one submit an IE bug report? <a href="http://t.co/P9qOB9BlVK" title="http://feross.org/fill-disk/">feross.org/fill-disk/</a></p>&mdash; Patrick Kettner (@patrickkettner) <a href="https://twitter.com/patrickkettner/status/307112171593138176">February 28, 2013</a></blockquote>
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I've been asked this a number of times and this was a great opportunity to post the steps on how to do it. 

I'm not going to sugar coat it because I personally think the process is WAY too complicated and I've complained to the IE team about this. Thankfully, they agree and are looking at how to streamline the process.

<h2>First time Submitting a Bug</h2>

If this is the first time submitting a bug to Microsoft, you'll need to register on the Microsoft Connect site.

Go to <a href="connect.microsoft.com">Microsoft's Connect site</a>. You'll need to sign in to use the site. It requires a Microsoft Live account. If you already have a Live account, then login and follow the steps below. If you don't, you'll first need to create one (you'll be presented with that option). I'm not going to show you how to register for a Live account because it's very straightforward. Yes, I hate the fact that you need to do this too but thankfully it's a one-time deal. Once you've created it, follow the steps below.

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When you're back at the Connect homepage, do a search for "IE10 Public Feedback":

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This will pull up the entry where you can join the IE10 Feedback group and submit bugs. You'll see a "Join" link to allow you to do this:

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If this is your first time using Connect, you'll be prompted with a registration page and profile setup pages. This is a one-time deal and you shouldn't be presented with these pages next time around:

<a href="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-reg.png"><img src="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-reg-300x192.png" alt="cap-reg" width="300" height="192" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2005" /></a>

<a href="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-5.png"><img src="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-5-300x173.png" alt="cap-5" width="300" height="173" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2007" /></a>

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Once you're through that you should come to the IE10 Public Feedback page. This is where you'll start submitting feedback by clicking on the "Feedback" link:

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When the feedback page comes up, scroll down and you'll see a big "Submit Feedback" button. Use that to submit your bug. 

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<h2>Returning to Submit a Bug</h2>

If you're coming back, I'm assuming you already have a Microsoft Live ID so sign in:

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and when you're brought back to the Connect homepage, click on the dropdown in the upper right corner to go directly to the Internet Explorer Feedback Program page. No need to search for it when that shortcut is there:

<a href="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-9.png"><img src="http://blog.reybango.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cap-9-300x173.png" alt="cap-9" width="300" height="173" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2016" /></a>


<h2>Submitting Good Feedback</h2>

Any software maker will tell you the same thing; provide detailed steps and a test case if possible to make isolating your issue as easy as possible. If you simply type, "My site doesn't render in IE9", you're making things more difficult. Take the time to really isolate the problem and provide detailed, concise information so that the IE team can properly determine if it's a bug and even if there's a workaround.

I recommend using tools like <a href="http://jsbin.com/">JSBin</a> or <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/">JSFiddle</a> to provide live test cases for the IE team to look at. 

<h2>Improving the Process</h2>

I know this can be a cumbersome experience and we've received a lot of feedback about how frustrating it is to submit a bug. The IE team is working on improving this so bear with us while this gets worked on. 

Special thank to <a href="https://twitter.com/patrickkettner">Patrick </a>for the motivation to put this post up.

