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[Python-Dev] Python 2.7.7. on Windows

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Tue Apr 29 05:07:00 CEST 2014 
Mike Miller writes:

 > Microsoft's guidelines on where to install software are clear, and
 > don't make exceptions that "tools" should be installed to the root
 > of the drive to bypass file system permissions, for convenience.

But there's the rub.  In this case, Microsoft doesn't have *security*,
it has "guidelines".  They are *still* guidelines, not security,
*exactly* because it's convenient for somebody.  The fact that taking
advantage of that convenience has the side effect of bypassing
filesystem permissions is unfortunate (and a bug in Windows IMO).

Note that if users actually paid attention to these guidelines, we'd
be getting complaints from *them*, not from you.  I don't recall ever
seeing that.  That implies that "normal users" will install anything
anwhere anyway.

If it's that unimportant to Microsoft, I see insufficient reason why
we should risk confusing those "normal users" who already have Python
2.7 installed (and as pointed out, they *are* at risk precisely
because the proposal changes the default install location).
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