I have always been annoyed with the huge number of files under the Windows directory, but I was very surprised when I looked at my Windows directory under Vista: 39,609 files and 7,411 folders!

The Windows directory has always been a bit overwhelming, but that is simply unmanageable. I used to be able to get a pretty good idea what files where under Windows, but now someone could hide anything they wanted there and I’d never distinguish it from all the other clutter.

What I would like to see is a Windows installer that lets you decide exactly what you put on your disk. Sure, you can install Windows, bypass Windows file protection, and delete the files you don’t need–if you’re willing to do a year’s worth of research.

Bloat is one thing, it’s kind of a natural side effect of object-oriented and component-based development, but this is something completely different–this is just poor housekeeping.

What amazes me is some of the executables I still see even in Windows Vista:

doskey.exe
edlin.exe
fastopen.exe
finger.exe
subst.exe

Perhaps there is a good reason for some users to have those files around, but do they need to be there by default? I seriously don’t remember the last time I needed edlin. I was surprised when I saw it still in Windows 95. What I’d rather see is a nice ssh client, a built-in tool for handling archives such as rar and tar, and maybe even a wget-like command-line http retriever.

So with all the security improvements we have in Windows Vista, it’s time to take a look at all that clutter. You know, reduce some of that attack surface, practice a little defense in depth, and make it easier for us to spot stuff that doesn’t belong.

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