I agree with your main point, but putting the cutoff at Windows 7 is extremely generous. Already by then it was doing absolutely insane things like hiding the actual name of the "Program files" folder and instead showing the localized name.
Let me explain: in Swedish Windows, for instance, "C:\Program Files" was traditionally called "C:\Program" since Windows 95. (Here is where the ACTUAL mistake was made that has turned into technical debt ever since -- why in the name of hell would you LOCALIZE the FILENAME of a SYSTEM FOLDER?)
Anyway, lots of installers aren't locale aware and assume "Program Files" so it used to be that most Swedish users had some software installed in "C:\Program" and some in "C:\Program Files" and it was a total mess. Microsoft "solved" this by having Explorer show "C:\Program" but under the hood it is actually "C:\Program Files". The mind boggles, truly.
Then there's the whole "Libraries" vs "Folders" fiasco, don't get me started...
For me, it's been straight downhill since Windows 98 started hiding the contents of system folders by default.
I agree with your main point, but putting the cutoff at Windows 7 is extremely generous. Already by then it was doing absolutely insane things like hiding the actual name of the "Program files" folder and instead showing the localized name.
Let me explain: in Swedish Windows, for instance, "C:\Program Files" was traditionally called "C:\Program" since Windows 95. (Here is where the ACTUAL mistake was made that has turned into technical debt ever since -- why in the name of hell would you LOCALIZE the FILENAME of a SYSTEM FOLDER?)
Anyway, lots of installers aren't locale aware and assume "Program Files" so it used to be that most Swedish users had some software installed in "C:\Program" and some in "C:\Program Files" and it was a total mess. Microsoft "solved" this by having Explorer show "C:\Program" but under the hood it is actually "C:\Program Files". The mind boggles, truly.
Then there's the whole "Libraries" vs "Folders" fiasco, don't get me started...
For me, it's been straight downhill since Windows 98 started hiding the contents of system folders by default.
Luckily, we have 64-bit WINFILE.EXE: https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile :)