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by DavidAbrams 5145 days ago
How? Windows installation has been fine for a decade and a half. Actually, it's going BACKWARD, with vendors now not bothering to ask you WHERE you want application links stored and instead littering your machine's program menu with endless directories named after themselves. Who the hell organizes their applications by vendor? I want my graphics apps together, my audio apps in another group, general office-type apps in another.

With every release, Windows has made this basic function (organizing applications) a bigger pain in the ass. If Microsoft is going to start enforcing policies, then this should be one: No application can simply barf a bunch of crap into your Start menu without ASKING where you want it to go.
2 comments
vetinari 5145 days ago
Windows installation has been not fine by any stretch of imagination. It still has the same problems:

1) It is third party service, not provided by system (yes, I know about Microsoft Installer); it is up to the application vendors what they will use,

2) Installers can litter in the system, wherever they want (see your complaint about Start menu),

3) No 100% working uninstallation and/or repair, you will end-up with installers damaging your system and having to reinstall (even Microsoft ones; how the heck do I get rid of CJK IMEs, that Proofing Tools for Office 2010 "helpfully" installed?),

4) No update service, you end up with many updaters slowing down your system,

5) and many more.

If you think, that Windows installation is fine - have you ever seen install systems on other OSes?

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DavidAbrams 5140 days ago
Yes, extensively Mac OS. Now you want to talk about a turd, that is it.

PackageMaker is abandonware and an absolute fiasco. I don't even know where to begin documenting how this "product" fails at its primary task so utterly. Have you ever tried building an installer with it? Even Apple products tried to avoid it; Final Cut Studio, for example.

When the Mac installer does anything, it's just as capable of littering your system with crap.

And the Mac uninstaller doesn't leave turds behind, because it doesn't exist. You just have unknown crap all over your system.

Then there was the total lack of any way to install a single printer driver from Apple's collection until (IIRC) SnowLeopard. You got to install half a gig of drivers for every Epson printer ever made, just to support your one printer.

It has been quite a while since I've had a Windows uninstaller break my system. Do a lot of them leave turds? Yep. But at least they remove the bulk of the payload.

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dpark 5145 days ago
Sorry, I think you missed a pretty big memo. The Start Menu is gone in Windows 8.
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tomjen3 5145 days ago
Does this also mean that winbutton no longer gives you access to search through your programs and documents?
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recoiledsnake 5145 days ago
No... just hit winbutton and start typing away.
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DavidAbrams 5140 days ago
Because you remember the name of every program on your computer, including that seldom-used demuxing utility you downloaded last year.
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DavidAbrams 5140 days ago
That "memo" (otherwise known as a rumor) has already gone back and forth, and I have better things to do than baby-sit Microsoft's UI regressions.

Actually, the Start menu itself was a regression. What is it being replaced with?

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