I must disagree. Software that gives you ample opportunities to fall into a pit that all users would agree they don't want to be in, and makes you waste countless of hours of research just to find out how you got in the pit, is bad software. We've all thrown up that "it's not a bug its a feature" crap at users at one time or another in our careers, and we all know it's crap.

If IS puts only one user through an endless loop of reinstalling something, thats too many. I suspect hundreds or thousands of users will have that experience.

IS suffers from the fact that they have to accept all of Microsoft's design decisions unquestioningly, and make their own design decisions as well. Two sources of errors, it's always somebody elses fault, and no single overarching vision with the user's best interests at heart.

Even with that said, they perform a useful service, and they can get a whole lot better. I hope they do.

Microsoft Windows Installer also can get a whole lot better. I hope it does. Far too many installs are failing without rolling back and leaving users the unenviable choice between reformatting and firing up REGEDIT with a machete and a guess.