RE: OTP - menu fix

[grant hallman <unilogic@primus.ca>]

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At 05:29 AM 3/23/01 -0800, you wrote:
>
>The uninstaller *should* get rid of everything that it puts on your system
>(except shared dlls etc)... 

That's one of the weaknessess of the whole concept of dll's, IMHO. Weren't
they supposed to be "libraries"? That would be, a public, well-specified
resource that ne1 can use. Instead, we've got private, shared and public
dlls. Instal some game or other, it adds a dll for video card or heaven
help us a VB run-time dll, then when it wants to uninstal, it has no way to
know whether some other app is now counting on it, or not. This whole
concept was not well thot out, methinks.

>there's a program called Clean Sweep (forgot who makes it and i don't know if
>they still do), but it basically sat in the background and watched your
system
>to see what whas changed (registry, replaced files, new files, removed
>files,etc...) and you could easily do an uninstall through it to remove
>*everything*.  main reason for it's existance was the fact that in
uninstaller
>never removed everything (even those from the big companies).  there was
always
>a .dll or something left behind.  i think it keeps track of how many programs
>make use of shared files as well.

Hey, what a great idea! Why not do this in the o/s?(!)

>but with trial ware, they generally bury keys in
>the registry or use other methods to make sure you don't reinstall their
>software after it has expired.
>
>Out of interest, anyone know of a way to get around this?  I guess that it's
>not entirely legal though :(

"not legal" in the sense that someone else has the right to "bury things"
in ur computer, and u don't have the right to know about 'em and change
'em? I don't think so. Not unless they rent HD space from me: last i
looked, this is _my_ box.

Now if the s/ware supplier wants to ask for a contract with me, /b4/ i buy
or DL his stuff, if i accept it i'll honor it. But don't come back after i
spent an hour DLing what was listed as free, and it's already
semi-installed or more, and then tell me i hafta pay $29.95 in 30 days, uh
uh. That's not a contract, that's extortion. 

grant

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