seasoned_geek wrote:

Older Windows installation program ceased working when the Registry was introduced.

I will admit my ignorance of the inner workings of Windows, but if I wrote an installer in 1994, 1 year before the Windows registry was introduced with Win95, why - and HOW - would that installer suddenly stop working just because something EXTRA was added to Windows?

I could understand that it would stop working if something was REMOVED, but not if something is ADDED.

As I said, your installer may very well "think" it completed, but without entries in the registry, the application wouldn't be usable. A single EXE running from a single directory would work, but once you started needing DLLs and Windows resources, your application wouldn't be allowed access. I don't remember, but I think it was even blocked from getting on the Windows menu with all of the other applications. I am not certain, but I think the creation/placement/location of desktop icons even required registry entries after that.

I remember things busted bad when Registry came out and everybody had to upgrade all significant software.

There were also Windows library/system calls which added required parameters (in part due to the registry) that stopped applications from installing/working.

The registry existed before Win95, though it did little more than contain file associations. Legacy installers usually DID work in Win95. The shortcuts that used to end up in a group (.grp file) ended up in a folder in the Start Menu. If anything, MS has placed too much emphasis on backwards compatibility. Sometimes a clean break is best.

I had several which didn't work with Win95. Some of them large commercial products.

Ah well...if any distro actually gets serious about making Linux a reliable tested desktop, it could take over corporate America. So far, none qualify.

And now this thread has moved into the realm of Milliways.

Closed - happy weekend.