I decided to take Microsoft up on their offer of a free toaster. A few screens in to the installer, I see this:
Cool! So I get to click some of these options, right? I click Use recommended settings:
That’s odd, I muse. That option must be incompatible with the others for some reason. So I turn it off and try the next option, Install definition updates only1.
At this point, I turn off the option and try the third option, Ask me later. I know what’s going to happen, I just can’t quite believe it. Nobody’s this stupid, right? Wrong.
And there you have it. When Microsoft first chipped the Windows logo in to cave walls, they must have chipped a check box under it.
I feel almost guilty pointing out Microsoft’s stupidities. It’s a bit like kicking a puppy. A puppy that when you stop kicking it will pee on your carpet, round the corners of your furniture with its teeth, bite your friends and dry hump your leg, but still a puppy.
- Who writes these option names, anyway? Terribly complicated! [↩]
All tests at Microsoft are supposed to be scripted. Misuse of UI controls would be somewhat difficult to script a test for, so it probably wasn’t done.
The funny part to me is they disable the other options. I’ve seen check boxes used instead of radio buttons before, but they acted like radio buttons.
You just know someone wrote an extra 150 lines of code in some Microsoft-only proprietary installer language to get this effect.
(I’m kidding myself. It’s probably more like 600.)