Monday, November 27, 2006

Vista and Updates


vistaandwinupdate.JPG
Originally uploaded by awasim.
One thing I hated in Windows XP was the fact that windows update would create arbitrary directories on your hard drive that would just look really ugly. I was surprised to see that this problem hasn't been fixed.

As shown in the image, this is a directory listing of the root of my C drive on Vista (RTM version downloaded from msdn). Their is this directory with the name beginning with f4f5...

The directory contains a log file from an msxml update done via windowsupdate. I took the screenshot using Microsofts new "snipping tool".


And if I had known the following I would've not blown away my XP install and wasted a day or so reinstalling everything!

Upgrades are super-charged Clean Installs

Upgrade to Windows Vista are no longer a 'merge' with the old OS. First, Windows Vista's setup gathers old OS settings and user settings and data and stores them. Then it wipes away the old OS and applies the new operating system image (which is really fast thanks to Image Based Setup). Next, setup applies stored settings and data to this clean install based on per-component logic in manifests and plug-ins, which magically brings back your applications and data in a brand new OS. Your registry and file system are free of goo that is no longer needed by Windows Vista.

Mozilla and hypocrisy

Right, but what about the experiences that Mozilla chooses to default for users like switching to  Yahoo and making that the default upon ...