Of course, you already know the answer. Microsoft doesn't improve this kind of thing because it doesn't have to. It's got a bad case of a little thing called Monopoly Complacence.
[Edited excerpt from "Want a New Headache? Try to Uninstall," by David Pogue, New York Times, February 17, 2005.]
The resulting tsunami was confined to the Times forum for reader opinions on Pogue's columns, since participants weren't illustrious professors with access to vent on Op-Ed pages. But there, the tearful joy was palpable. Many seemed stunned that Microsoft's obscene defects, which for decades have paralyzed information processes and enraged the common man in every city of every nation of every continent, were finally, incredibly, being openly acknowledged in an establishment media organ like the Times:
It is so reassuring to hear that David Pogue has the same sort of problems with his PC that I have with mine. Misery loves company!
I completely agree with the column addressing the complexity (and incompleteness) of uninstall procedures in Windows. It is infuriating to think that I have a hard drive cluttered with files whose possible use I cannot reasonably determine.
Amen. I thought I was alone in the world wondering what the h@@### are these DLL's I might remove at my peril. What's outrageous is that we pay good money for such sloppy, and yes, THOUGHTLESS programming. What's even more astonishing is that an operating system so full of bugs and vulnerabilities is so dominant. The old saying is "cream rises." In this case, it's the garbage.
Thanks for drawing attention to another fragment of Microsoft misery.
For the first time in nearly a year or maybe a year and a half you have written an article that is close to my heart.
Thank you David. Not being as tech savvy as most, I am totally intimidated by the statement that removing a program may corrupt untold numbers of other programs. As a result I back off and leave the unwanted material clogging the arteries of my computer.
There was also heavy traffic concerning third party programs to which desperate users could turn to do the job Windows is supposed to do:
The best cure I've found for the uninstall blues is PC Magazine's free utility "Unclean".
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Pretty funny stuff. A nice shortening of the discussions highpoints.
There are still some odd things left if you uninstall a program in Macs. But normally these are in only two folders and are fairly easy to determine where they go.
Pogue is a guy who used to write for MacWorld but has affection for both PC-Mac. Not me. I've never sent my Mac in for repair; never wondered what the hell happened there. I did have to erase everything on my work disk once, but that wasn't my fault (I was assured)
And OSX has elimnated program crashes completelty. One program dies, you force quit it and the computer runs as before.
Of course, it's all down to what you started with and I started with Macs in 1995.
2 - Mark Saleski
the .net comment was particularly funny.
great solultion to bad software...wrap it in an even heavier layer of more software.
3 - DrPat
As someone who has worked with both Mac and PC, I would have to agree that Macs side-step a lot of the problems seen in Windows.
On the other hand, they also have problems with some common stuff. (If I had a nickel for every attached eMail file my Mac-dedicated friend Dave told me he couldn't see, I'd have a szit-load of nickels!)
Same thing holds true with Linux and Unix and other operating systems. You pays yer money, and you takes yer choice...
4 - gonzo marx
being a Fan of David Pogue's stuff for quite the number of years..it was good to see him tee off this way..
i also am in a dual boot household..i went from an Amiga 500 to a 386 PC, next computer was a Mac and kept with them for years ...my better half being into graphic design for 10 years...
i went with 2 computers when i needed to learn XP for work, since the game center LANs were going to be using it, while our servers were Linux builds...
while XP is by far my favorite flavor of n Windows...there are sO many problems inherent in the OS that the strange "unistall" difficulties are merely the surface...
Apple tends ot avoid a lot fo this by requiring their software makers to adhere to a very strict code fo standers...from the way a program installs, to the look and feel as well as function of the Interface and beyond
each has it's strength's and weaknesses
but for Bloat and obscurity..nothing tops Windows...
nuff said?
Excelsior!