Re: thanks for nothing - a look at the uninstaller

[Andrey Repin <anrdaemon freemail ru>]

Greetings, Octavio Alvarez!

> > > > > IIRC, Beatrice said that she uses separate directories for OS and apps
> > > > > because of the use of an SSD; an explicit directory selection occurred.
> > > >
> > > > Well, that was a wrong way to do it then.
> > > > You MUST install applications on the same partition as your OS to avoid
> > > > unnecessary writes. This is how WinSxS works.
> >
> > > I'd guess the SSD was for the OS. And what if the SSD is not big enough
> > > to hold all the C:\Program Files?
> >
> > As I said, installing applications somewhere else is a quick way to overflow
> > your primary partition due to the way WinSxS works. (Basically, when you
> > install your application on different partition, it has to COPY libraries,
> > instead of making hardlinks to them, as it usually would.)
> > It SHOULD have enough space for your applications. Smallest SSD I saw was,
> > like, 60gb? In my experience, half that space is sufficient for a quite heavy
> > workspace (3DS, Photoshop, ArchiCAD, AutoCAD and quite a ton of plugins and
> > additional tools supplementing the workflow).

> Disclaimer: I know nothing about WinSxS. Found about it because of your
> comments. I hope no to sound too pedantic.

> I found this [1] from Microsoft which actually suggests offloading
> program files from the system volume.

This only helps in case of applications, that store more data, than actual
executable code (i.e.: games), or applications, that are not designed to work
in multi-user environment (poorly written programs from previous century,
mainly, again, games).

> I'm just trying to make a use case for choosing a directory other than
> C:\Program Files and why having the RmDir /R so exposed is more harmful than
> helpful.

This goes without question. Uninstaller should not remove any files the
installer did not created. And should not confuse the user with stupid
questions, creating false perception of safety.
Under normal circumstances, that would be the only things needed to be
removed, as application should not write into it's installation directory
throughout the normal operation cycle. Application updates fall under
installation category, rather than "normal operation".

> [1] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795190 - How to address disk space
> issues that are caused by a large Windows component store (WinSxS)
> directory .

As you may have noticed, WinSxS normally contains HARD LINKS, as the article
specifically mentioned, and it's real size usually much smaller, than it's
perceived size as shown in different file managers. (In our tests, real space
used was anywhere from 1% to 10% of perceived space. That is, 10-15mb out of
1.5Gb "used space" reported by Explorer.)
But in the event of inability to create a hard link (f.e., the link target
being on a different device), the WinSxS will contain a real copy of the
object, which will take real space.
See the note above about moving applications to a different partition.


--
WBR,
Andrey Repin (anrdaemon freemail ru) 04.02.2014, <11:26>

Sorry for my terrible english...