Windows 7 pricing: Some users fume as the rose-colored discounts fade

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AutoBloat nixes many XP to Vista or Win7 Upgrades: I'm glad you liked the funny aspect of the term *AutoBloat.* I didn't think it was funny when I upgraded a new Vista installation (73 or so updates at the time) to discover that the process had increased Vista's space usage by 8 GB! (The free and open-source WinDirStat utility helped me figure out what was what; web-search on the name. WinDirStat helped me determine that I could get 2 GB back by deleting downloaded-and-installed patches, which--I'm sure for rock-solidly defensible reasonx--by default just happened not to be automatically deleted after WU was done. (BTW, space taken by inclusion in the system drive of the i386 fileset is essentially static and modest compared to WindowsSxS AutoBloat even for a DVD distribution. Now that you mention it, yes, please: Let's move back to the i386 approach.)

So it doesn't matter if the contents are WindowsSxS are largely hard symbolic links to "real" files; the OS is sure that the newly-gobbled space is gone, as I discovered when trying to fully update a test Vista installation in a 10-GB partition: The upgrade failed because AutoBloat ran the disk out of space.

And so it just happens that as well as working toward its eminently laudable goal of insulating the user from DLL Hell, WindowsSxS also has the effect through AutoBloat of making many computers now running mature XP installations *practically useless for Vista and Win7.* (Think 10 or 40 GB free should be enough to update the OS to Vista or Win7? 10 GB won't be enough if you'll update Vista once you install it--as you will if you want to connect your Windows computer to the real world--or Win7 after few months' or years' worth of AutoBloat takes most or all of that seemingly free space away.) Think you're ready to do the dance steps necessary to rehome your maxed-out Vista or Win7 installation on a new, larger hard drive? Are you ready for the blue-screen Stop errors that happen when Windows wakes up in a new bed? Assuming that you successfully work your way through the resulting minefield with the help of non-free third-party rescue tools, are you ready for Windows Activation and/or WGA to notice that new hard drive and treat you like a thief--at minimum, debiting one of your allowed installs because the new hard drive makes a "new computer"--until you prove yourself innocent?)

That's why I'm so glad you injected the word *sad* into this discussion. Very, very conveniently, though I'm sure for rock-solidly defensible reasons, the AutoBloat behavior of WindowsSxS just happens to make many, many XP computers practically un-upgradable to Vista or Win7 for reasons of medium- to long-term-insufficient disk space--as if the unavailability of a preserve-your-apps-*and*-your-files upgrade XP-toWin7 wizard wasn't enough of a barrier. I think *sad* is an excellent word for characterizing the plight of those exploited by these behaviors.; Posted by: TriangleDoor Posted on: 07/09/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use