[fargle]

> I know it must be frustrating from Microsoft's standpoint

no sympathy. Chen seems a little irritated (as he should be) at the situation, but he's still missing (or purposely not stating) the real point. the correct response is alluded to by a couple folks in the comments section. i'll be more explicit:

- if microsoft was paying attention, it would simply add the functionality these 3rd party hacky extensions were adding, obviating the need for that extension at all. Like adding a setting for the flashing taskbar buttons you mentioned.

- failing that, simply allow some of those "internal" functions as a public extension points

the fact that a market for such egregious hacks implies significant demand for something.

gad, explorer and windows UI is such a dumpster fire. you don't even need to do any kind of fancy market research, just look at what the most popular extensions are doing to patch over deficiencies and them fix them!