4 ms·

That doesn't sound right. Microsoft is obsessed with backwards compatibility, going so far as to accommodate programs that were writing to Windows' private memo

by bigstrat2003 2y ago

That doesn't sound right. Microsoft is obsessed with backwards compatibility, going so far as to accommodate programs that were writing to Windows' private memory just to preserve it. Deliberately breaking programs isn't in their ethos at all.

sltkr 2y ago
The new filesystem APIs were introduced with Windows 95, so there was no backward compatibility to break. New programs using those new APIs were forced to support spaces in directories. Using spaces in the system directories forced application developers to consider that scenario and deal with it appropriately. Meanwhile, DOS and Windows 3.1 applications that did run on Windows 95 could access files under a backward compatible 8.3 scheme, like C:\Progra~1\ instead of "C:\Program Files".
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  That's a good point, thanks for pointing it out.
michaelt 2y ago
I'm thinking of the transitions from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 (IIRC introducing 32-bit and filenames longer than 8 characters) and the transition from Windows 95 to Windows XP (IIRC introducing a proper permission system, thus breaking anything that relied on being able to write things outside of user-owned folders) I agree they were famously accommodating in those days. But they also had enough market power that if they said users could only write to one folder and it had a space in the filename, developers who disliked it couldn't vote with their feet.
lousken 2y ago
And yet... if you create user using a display name e.g. Peter Čenička in AAD and deploy a PC with intune you will get home folder called PeterČenička.[0] It breaks SO MANY things. And no, that beta UTF8 system wide setting does not work with 3rd party apps. I just dont understand why they dont use part of the email address as the home folder name. And just because of this stupidity, user display names have to be without any of these characters Microsoft ... PLEASE [0] https://doitpshway.com/do-not-use-diacritics-in-aad-user-displayname https://doitpshway.com/do-not-use-diacritics-in-aad-user-dis...

sltkr 2y ago

The new filesystem APIs were introduced with Windows 95, so there was no backward compatibility to break. New programs using those new APIs were forced to support spaces in directories. Using spaces in the system directories forced application developers to consider that scenario and deal with it appropriately. Meanwhile, DOS and Windows 3.1 applications that did run on Windows 95 could access files under a backward compatible 8.3 scheme, like C:\Progra~1\ instead of "C:\Program Files".

bigstrat2003 2y ago
That's a good point, thanks for pointing it out.

michaelt 2y ago

I'm thinking of the transitions from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 (IIRC introducing 32-bit and filenames longer than 8 characters) and the transition from Windows 95 to Windows XP (IIRC introducing a proper permission system, thus breaking anything that relied on being able to write things outside of user-owned folders) I agree they were famously accommodating in those days. But they also had enough market power that if they said users could only write to one folder and it had a space in the filename, developers who disliked it couldn't vote with their feet.

lousken 2y ago

And yet... if you create user using a display name e.g. Peter Čenička in AAD and deploy a PC with intune you will get home folder called PeterČenička.[0] It breaks SO MANY things. And no, that beta UTF8 system wide setting does not work with 3rd party apps. I just dont understand why they dont use part of the email address as the home folder name. And just because of this stupidity, user display names have to be without any of these characters Microsoft ... PLEASE [0] https://doitpshway.com/do-not-use-diacritics-in-aad-user-displayname https://doitpshway.com/do-not-use-diacritics-in-aad-user-dis...