Raymond Chen's blog addresses this a lot. The reason why they did this was because even if it wasn't their fault, people would blame Microsoft for breaking thin

Raymond Chen's blog addresses this a lot. The reason why they did this was because even if it wasn't their fault, people would blame Microsoft for breaking things. Since they can't force third-party developers to fix their broken code or to stop using weird hacks, they chose the best option available to them. Fix it themselves. I don't see how they did anything wrong or why it wouldn't still be one of the best solutions today. And honestly, it often still is the best or even the only solution today. There's only so much we have control over, no matter who we are.