Software installation procedures degrade
Did anyone recognize how the installation procedures for common software applications changed in the recent time?
I mean that more and more installation procedures tend to skip the steps where the user is asked for the location of the application to install and the folder location or name of the Start/Program menu where the links are to be created.
This really bugs me because in general I try to sort my application links in the Start menu into subfolders like "Tools", "Multimedia", "Internet" or "System". But if an application, for example let's say [Google Earth][1], thinks that it knows better than me where I'd like to have my startup links for it (namely here Start->Programs->Google Earth), it completely breaks my personal categorisation.
"No big deal, just manually move the newly created folder into one of your categories" one might think. And on the surface it's really that easy. But beneath, besides being quite annoying if you're regulary installing new software, it also breaks part of the removal process when you decide to uninstall that application. If the Start menu entry is not on the same location as installed anymore, it won't get removed and stay in the own-categorized folder as rubbish.
So I call all install-package-creators out there: Please let me choose my installation- and Start-menu path.