6 ms·

First of all, this guy's biggest mistake was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install. Installing windows requires far less effort th

by beloch 14y ago

First of all, this guy's biggest mistake was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install. Installing windows requires far less effort than cleansing a vendor's install of crapware. Users should not have to do this. I must fully agree that MS needs to start restricting what Vendors like HP can install on the PC's they sell. Second, I'm very curious to see how the Windows App store plays out. The #1 thing it needs to do to improve Windows as an OS is distribute free software. There is a lot of excellent free software available for windows like chrome, firefox, VLC, foobar2000, texmaker, Notepad++, uTorrent, etc.. Users have to go to different websites to download everything. This is such a pain that people have come up with installers, like ninite, that aggregate free software together into a single download. Ninite doesn't have everything I use, but it can easily shave hours off of setting up a new Windows box! One major advantage of an App store is that software distributed through it can be policed for malware and viruses. If MS could get users to use their store as much as possible there is the potential to improve security of the OS. The only way MS can do this is to build their store up as a trusted and comprehensive distribution center that is all most users need. MS should view it as a failure on their part whenever users are forced to go elsewhere to get software, even software that competes with Microsoft products or which duplicates core functionality of the OS. That's where Apple's App store failed! In order to do this, MS needs to devote resources to lowering the barrier to publication in their store. Don't get me wrong, I am dead-set against Windows moving towards an entirely walled-garden iOS style ecosystem. The ability to install software from outside the store should be preserved, nor should it be limited in any way. However, I would welcome a central distribution point for Windows software like what Linux has. Debian's APT package management system is brilliant. Even 10 years ago it would have made today's Apple App store look sad and pathetic. It is both comprehensive and incredibly smart in how it makes software modular with clear dependencies that are managed automatically for the user. This is the dream that all application stores should aspire towards. Redmond and Cupertino, for the love of your users, please start your copiers.

jiggy2011 14y ago
As I mentioned elsewhere, doing a clean Windows install is difficult if the only means of reinstallation you have is the bundled "recovery DVD" which puts all of the shit right back on there. With regards an APT for Windows, I don't see how that wouldn't be possible to add to Windows as a third party thing. With a nice GUI and search and a default catalog of quality mainly OSS software with no toolbars or BS and have it also keep everything upto date. That way you could just install it on all of your relatives who use Windows's computers and tell them just to download everything from either that or the MS app store.
- jmcqk6 14y ago
  I haven't used it yet, but windows 8 has a 'reset windows' option that will basically reset everything to a fresh install of windows 8 without having to do a reinstall.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Nice, does it allow OEMs to decide what to "reset" to though?
- dbarlett 14y ago
  A comment yesterday [1] led me to Chocolatey NuGet [2], a package manager for Windows built on PowerShell. The gallery [3] has almost everything I need to set up a dev environment. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4763895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4763895 [2] https://github.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/wiki https://github.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/wiki [3] http://chocolatey.org/packages http://chocolatey.org/packages
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    I was thinking more as a way for installing stuff for more casual users. Now I think about it these just seems like such an obvious idea that I'm surprised nobody ever did it.
    - maxerickson 14y ago
      Ninite does a lot of what you are talking about.
      - randomchars 14y ago
        It allows you to install some software.
- antidoh 14y ago
  "doing a clean Windows install is difficult if the only means of reinstallation you have is the bundled "recovery DVD" which puts all of the shit right back on there." That's not a clean install. A clean install is buying a retail version of Windows and blasting it down on your HD. Recovery DVDs recover what the hardware vendor put there in the first place.
bpatrianakos 14y ago
First of all? Really? No. You should not have to for,at your hard drive when you buy a new computer. Nerds aren't the only ones buying computers and the experience the author describes isn't how you treat a customer and you should never have to tell a customer to do some inconvenient thing if they want to use their new computer without hassles. Go tell your mom to format her hard drive and let me know what she says. I don't know about you but for most of us the answer would be "what?".
eldavido 14y ago
Pretty sure this is exactly what MS is going for. The RT versions of the OS only run on ARM and are more locked down, because a lot of Windows software isn't compiled for ARM and/or hasn't been adapted to the RT ("Metro") API set. But for the standard "Pro" versions of Windows available at Best Buy for $65, you can run anything you want, including a lot of legacy apps all the way back to Windows XP.
lusiad 14y ago
The guy's biggest mistake was buying an HP anything. HP is the new RIM. And they deserve the same outcome for the massive quantities of crapware they've forced consumers to endure. The worst.
Symmetry 14y ago
I've been a fan of the clean install and it is generally a lot better, but you'll often need to install third party drivers which will then try to install crapware at the same time.
josteink 14y ago
I consider myself a power-user, one which has grown extremely tired of doing the same re-install routine. ninite seems just like what the doctor ordered and I cannot believe I haven't heard of it until now. I know what I'll be trying out when we get new dev-machines at work and need to go through yet another reinstall. Thanks a bunch :)
89a 14y ago
> was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install HAHAHAHAHA IT'S LIKE I'M ACTUALLY LIVING IN 1997

by beloch 14y ago

jiggy2011 14y ago

As I mentioned elsewhere, doing a clean Windows install is difficult if the only means of reinstallation you have is the bundled "recovery DVD" which puts all of the shit right back on there. With regards an APT for Windows, I don't see how that wouldn't be possible to add to Windows as a third party thing. With a nice GUI and search and a default catalog of quality mainly OSS software with no toolbars or BS and have it also keep everything upto date. That way you could just install it on all of your relatives who use Windows's computers and tell them just to download everything from either that or the MS app store.

jmcqk6 14y ago
I haven't used it yet, but windows 8 has a 'reset windows' option that will basically reset everything to a fresh install of windows 8 without having to do a reinstall.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Nice, does it allow OEMs to decide what to "reset" to though?
dbarlett 14y ago
A comment yesterday [1] led me to Chocolatey NuGet [2], a package manager for Windows built on PowerShell. The gallery [3] has almost everything I need to set up a dev environment. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4763895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4763895 [2] https://github.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/wiki https://github.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/wiki [3] http://chocolatey.org/packages http://chocolatey.org/packages
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I was thinking more as a way for installing stuff for more casual users. Now I think about it these just seems like such an obvious idea that I'm surprised nobody ever did it.
  - maxerickson 14y ago
    Ninite does a lot of what you are talking about.
    - randomchars 14y ago
      It allows you to install some software.
antidoh 14y ago
"doing a clean Windows install is difficult if the only means of reinstallation you have is the bundled "recovery DVD" which puts all of the shit right back on there." That's not a clean install. A clean install is buying a retail version of Windows and blasting it down on your HD. Recovery DVDs recover what the hardware vendor put there in the first place.

bpatrianakos 14y ago

First of all? Really? No. You should not have to for,at your hard drive when you buy a new computer. Nerds aren't the only ones buying computers and the experience the author describes isn't how you treat a customer and you should never have to tell a customer to do some inconvenient thing if they want to use their new computer without hassles. Go tell your mom to format her hard drive and let me know what she says. I don't know about you but for most of us the answer would be "what?".

eldavido 14y ago

Pretty sure this is exactly what MS is going for. The RT versions of the OS only run on ARM and are more locked down, because a lot of Windows software isn't compiled for ARM and/or hasn't been adapted to the RT ("Metro") API set. But for the standard "Pro" versions of Windows available at Best Buy for $65, you can run anything you want, including a lot of legacy apps all the way back to Windows XP.

lusiad 14y ago

The guy's biggest mistake was buying an HP anything. HP is the new RIM. And they deserve the same outcome for the massive quantities of crapware they've forced consumers to endure. The worst.

Symmetry 14y ago

I've been a fan of the clean install and it is generally a lot better, but you'll often need to install third party drivers which will then try to install crapware at the same time.

josteink 14y ago

I consider myself a power-user, one which has grown extremely tired of doing the same re-install routine. ninite seems just like what the doctor ordered and I cannot believe I haven't heard of it until now. I know what I'll be trying out when we get new dev-machines at work and need to go through yet another reinstall. Thanks a bunch :)

89a 14y ago

> was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install HAHAHAHAHA IT'S LIKE I'M ACTUALLY LIVING IN 1997