>>I certainly understand your frustration on the need to patch up any moment - but consider the task of IE programmers saddled with the task of fixing holes in an application hamstrung in the grip of the registry for most of the settings and switches.
Absolutely and this is not a hit on MS: we want them to keep closing holes, but (to mix my metaphors!) if that creates a Sword of Damocles over our customers and us, we can choose to cut the Gordian Knot by moving back to Windows. FWIW we did experiment with x64 but apps seemed to run slightly slower and use more resources, so it's good old win32.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
