Windows woes

[Rioshin an'Harthen]

"Walter Bright" <newshound at digitalmars.com> wrote:
> John C wrote:
>> Poor Windows. It does take some stick. Shall I be the only one to come to 
>> its defence and say I've never had so much as a crash since Windows 2000? 
>> Honestly, all this fuss...
>
> XP rarely self-destructs on me. This is the second time in about 3 years. 
> But when it does, you're in for a full day or two of work, presuming you 
> have all your crib sheets and install disks ready. The only reason I had 
> them this time is because last August it failed on me, and it took me 
> about a week to get everything sorted out (and some stuff was lost for 
> good), including contacting some companies and begging them to give me a 
> new registration code :-(.
>
> I'd forgive Windows for needing a reinstall now and then *if* it separated 
> applications from the operating system, and *if* it provided reasonable 
> ways to back up and restore things like O.E.
>
> The only way to back up Windows is to mirror the drive.

Maybe that's the reason I don't like Windows - although I have to use it, 
both at work, and at home. (I'm dual booting into XP Pro or Fedora 4)

During the time I've had this computer (since September 2004), I've had to 
reinstall Windows no less than 10 times - usually about two months between 
reinstalls, shortest has been 2 days after I managed to finally install all 
the software I need.

Installing all the software I use is not a task for the faint-hearted. It 
takes me about a week, working 8-12 hours a day, to get all the software 
back in shape. Everything from 3dsmax to visual studio, sql server, etc. And 
not forgetting to, after installing Windows, to go into the control panel 
and add/remove programs for the needed Windows components it does not want 
to install by default.

Why, oh why doesn't Microsoft let us select *during* install what features 
we want? I always hate having to go into the control panel and add IIS etc. 
to the system...