3 ms·

No one will ever convince me that literally anything about Windows isn't utterly insane.

• inigyou 2mo ago
  How about running a program to set up another program, isn't that right, hahaha totally insane
  • TylerE 2mo ago
    Don't even get me started on the registry.
    • self_awareness 2mo ago
      How's registry different than ~/Library/Application Support?
      • frollogaston 2mo ago
        It's not a directory tree you can just browse in the filesystem, it's a few database files. Idk much about Windows, but at first glance I like how you can browse the Windows registry all in one place without digging through other files.
        • self_awareness 2mo ago
          But it has directories and files inside, right? It's only the program that is used to browse is different. It's like you don't use explorer but regedit. It's the only difference. On macOS it's not like you can always type what's inside the plist files with a text editor, sometimes you need to use 'plutil' anyway (if a plist is binary). So to browse Application Support you still often need thirdparty software anyway. Years ago I did a small project that mapped windows hive (registry) files as a filesystem through fuse on linux. It mapped to a filesystem concept nearly flawlessly. edit: can't reply anymore for today ('posting too fast'), so i just reply here: What is a file if not a key/value entry in a directory? Anyway, you can put custom binary data in registry, one value type is just "binary". But you shouldn't! Just like in Application Support - you can but you shouldn't. Registry just enforces it more. Entering regedit also requires to elevate it if you want to change system settings (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE). Changing user settings doesn't need elevation (HKEY_CURRENT_USER).
          • frollogaston 2mo ago
            You use regedit, and only registry keys/values are in there, not other kinds of files. And editing systemwide plists on Mac means authenticating each time you touch one unless you're using a sudo terminal or sudo Finder. It does meaningfully change the experience for whoever is digging into it. Also, Mac plists have two formats, xml and the non-text kind. Now mentioning that, I kinda hate both formats.
            • inigyou 2mo ago
              What, you don't like <key>foo</key><string>bar</string> instead of foo=bar or <foo>bar</foo>
              • frollogaston 2mo ago
                The dicts and arrays make it even more fun
          • frollogaston 2mo ago
            Sorry to hear they're throttling you... ~/Library/Preferences is the usual location for plists. Application Support usually has other stuff, but can have plists too. Plists can be anywhere I guess, but the `defaults` CLI only looks in a few places unless you specify a path manually.
          • inigyou 2mo ago
            Actually the registry doesn't enforce that the stored bytes match the type. If you want, you can store 800 bytes and call it a DWORD.
      • wpm 2mo ago
        Because the registry holds configuration data, and Application Support holds various helper tools and other random crap? The closest analogue to the registry on macOS are the ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences folders.
    • inigyou 2mo ago
      oh my god, non-file structured data! That's terrible! Everything should be a file in ~/.appname!
  • sunaookami 2mo ago
    Or how about two context menus?
• frollogaston 2mo ago
  There's a surprisingly sane place in Windows to uninstall apps that has no equivalent on Mac.
  • FacelessJim 2mo ago
    The Applications folder itself is the equivalent. You can select an app and just press delete.
    • frollogaston 2mo ago
      That doesn't delete all Application Support, Preferences, and Caches dirs associated with it.
      • ranger_danger 2mo ago
        and in many cases, Windows uninstallers don't do the equivalent either and leave stuff dangling about because there's no standard.
        • frollogaston 2mo ago
          Lack of standard dirs doesn't really matter in this case because the same dev writes the installer and uninstaller. But I do get annoyed that Windows programs put stuff in random places when I want to look into them, like it's program files, program files (x86), documents, roaming... where tf is %appdata% even
          • defrost 2mo ago
            Yeah, I know it's rhetorical, all the same, there are a bunch of ways to query environment variables: * From a windows CLI type SET and all environment variables will be listed along with their values. * From a windows CLI type SET APP and all environment variables prefixed with "app" will be listed along with their values (eg: APPDATA ). * With path location variables, open up file explorer and enter %appdata% in address bar and press enter / click "goto" arrow. File Explorer will expand the variable and show the expanded directory path and contents.