ANN: Vista "Gotchas" You Should Know About

[Chipp Walters]

I'm still thinking the portable application architecture is the way to
go...only that a custom installer needs to be written.

Fact is, Apple created the concept of 'portable apps' long ago when
all you had to have was a double-clickable program. Remember when
moving apps between computers was as simple as drag-drop? I believe
it's still mostly that way on the Mac.

My original architectures ended up spraying stuff all over the place,
from the Programs Folder, to the Documents folders, to the hidden
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data" folder and also
the registry.

While it was "correct" from a windows perspective, it was hard to
maintain, hard to debug on different users computers, and hard to
clean up on uninstall. I think some of this has to do with the various
concepts of licensing in play: license to machine, license to 1 user
on 1 machine, etc..

Our licenses are to individual users on any (many) machines, so it's
not necessary to try and tie them to a single box. I think eventually
all licenses will work this way. Certainly all the Web2.0 stuff
already works this way.

Lastly, Richard, I do believe you are correct about:
"I thought that all non-admin accounts required that
anyway, on Windows and Mac alike...."

And another good reason to stick with a portable application architecture.

Just my 2 cents...