Gentlemen, how does it differ from what we had for years? The case is much like what we had with Start menu before. The same shortcut clutter here, the only thing is that shortcuts are now bigger.
What if you go to %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and remove unnecessary *.lnk files? Would it work?
Well this is the world we live in And these are the hands we're given...
That folder is for the Start menu, not the Start screen.
I believe things could have been solved long ago if Microsoft redesigned Windows Installer as an Aero Wizard with the introduction of Vista and/or 7 (since most installers are designed as wizards) and then make options to create shortcuts in the Desktop,
Start menu/Start screen, taskbar pinned items and/or Quick Launch bar to be obligatory in every installation/repair process and allow the user to pick which shortcuts does s/he want to be added to each location. Better yet, just design it so the important
executables are the only ones exposed in the installer and allow the user to choose whether s/he wants them added to those locations or not.
Should Windows Installer be better designed and perhaps they would've succeeded in making it the standard installer on Windows, when it comes to the Desktop UI. I'm annoyed by the likes of InstallShields, InstallAwares, InstallJammers, etc. Why do people
keep reinventing the wheel if there's already a standard installer for the OS? Sure it has an ancient and outdated GUI (bleh, Windows 2000 look in 2012? And no, the manifests don't help it in looking better, modern and consistent) but that doesn't
make it broken in terms of functionality.
I'm sorry but I must disagree with your comment about the folder. The Start Menu folders do in fact work for the Start Screen and I use them regularly to add applications that don't have Start Menu shortcuts to the Start Screen. You are able to delete Start
Screen shortcut tiles from there.
Also, instead of detecting the important applications or changing the current installation paradigm, why not just blacklist the standard uninstaller/crap filenames like
Setup.exe
Uninstall.exe
Unins0000.exe
etc? It makes more sense to do that then to catalog every single "important" executable. Although I do agree with you, Windows Installer should be better designed, InstallShield and the like are horrible and don't fit in with the OS well.
But I must digress back to my original reason for commenting, the Program Data and AppData folders for the Start menu
do very much work for the start screen.
Indeed you are correct. I thought it only affected the Start Menu, since if RPEnabled in HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer is set to 0 or 2 (with value 2 creating somewhat of a balance as it disables the Immersive UI, or "Metro interface",
but allows certain components that depend on it to work, like the new Task Manager), the shortcuts there were deleted from the Start menu (yes, the old Start menu, not the Start screen of the Immersive UI).
I believe installers in Windows should always use the Windows Installer and come in .msi files (or .msp files if the installer is related to a patch). Microsoft should also overhaul the UI of Windows Installer and make it an Aero Wizard with the
options I mentioned above. Furthermore, I'm astonished how many files of the sorts you mentioned (Setup.exe, Uninstall.exe, etc.) are just bootstraps that extract the real installer, which does come as a Windows Installer file (.msi)! That's why I even use
software like 7-Zip or PeaZip most of the times to check if those files are just containers of the real installaton files and in case I can directly extract the files where I want them, I do it and just run the real installer. So in a way, many installers
are already created and do use Windows Installer but it isn't exactly the same as creating a unified installation experience, in which all installers use it and don't create a variant of it and that come in an universal format (.msi).
I think we should send feedback on this to Microsoft using the Send Feedback tool. I will personally suggest them to urgently overhaul the Windows Installer UI to make it look like an Aero Wizard and use the new icons they already have present in the
system files as well as requesting that all installers must come with basic options that give users control about paths, components and shortcuts that the installer attempts to create, add and/or modify during the process. Want an example of an Aero Wizard-like
installer? Take a look at Trillian's. It's that kind of UI that the modern Windows Installer should have as most installers are wizards and it matches the system wizards perfectly. And with that, it would create a single, universal and stable standard
of Desktop installers for Windows.
