276465 - Mal-Design choice leads to lost email, bookmarks preferences &c.

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jay Nickson]

In Windows in general the user has to sometimes delete the windows directory in
order to reinstall.  Depending on the nature and number of software loaded and
uninstalled this may be every two weeks to every year or so.

e.g. http://nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/circuits/30hard.html  Granted this
person is not too savvy about tech, she's an idiot actually, but still she is
writing tech columns for the NYT and so may be less clueless than the average
user.  You could also consult techtips.com or google to find that this is
recommended procedure.  

FireFox and Thunderbird seem to keep their user data in 
   %windir%\application data
This is not a design choice made by clear headed professionals for Windows.

Were the application data is stored someplace at user discretion then after
Windows has crashed terminally and is reinstalled the user could still have
their mail files, bookmarks, et cetera.

The way you have done it, all is needlessly lost.

J

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Euh .. that's where Windows WANTS the applications to store their data. There's
bug 74085 who wants to change it slightly, but the general idea is dat it's
stored inside %USERPROFILE%.

On older Windows versions, %USERPROFILE% often points to C:\WINDOWS\Application
Data, but in Windows 2000 and XP, it's usually C:\Documents and
Settings\%USERNAME% . Why did they change it ? To prevent the problem that you
just mentioned.

Comment 2

[Oliver Klee]

Proposing Invalid.

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The choice to put "Application Data" in the Windows folder was Microsoft's
mistake. They subsequently changed it in Windows XP as Jo Hermans said. If you
are worrying about losing you're settings when deleteing the windows folder,
just back up your profile beforehand. With the decreasing number of people
actually using W98, we're not about to go making special workarounds for when
people delete their own data.

I agree with Jo and Oliver.
-> INVALID.