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Perceived design flaw regarding "delete completely"

PostPosted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:54 am
by dssnider
The attached screenshot displays the action that I just took 20 minutes ago.

The problem I have with the action is that it removed all the registry entries within the SOFTWARE/Classes key. This was unexpected as I was given no clear warning that the action would do more than delete the added (new) registry entries. It was relatively painless for me to perform a system restore, or else I would certainly not have continued to use TU.

I believe it is a design flaw in the application for two reasons:
1. It is not clear that performing the delete action can cause extensive damage to the system.
2. There is no clear indication whether the parent registry key contains more entries than the new additions.

I have not tested whether the same behavior happens when deleting parent directories.

So I respectfully recommend that either the warning message be made very clear about this potential damage, or that the behavior is modified to only remove the added (new) entries.

Thank you
-Dennis

Re: Perceived design flaw regarding "delete completely"

PostPosted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:39 am
by admin
I see the potential problem for a new user. A warning message will not help because users don't really read message dialogs. There is already a warning and wasn't enough.
We will disable the Delete action for unchanged items to avoid the potential damage of inexperienced users.

Don't try to delete parent directories! If the item has a normal folder/key icon, means that was already there when the program was installed.
Of course, these folder/keys are rarely empty and the content will be deleted when you chose Delete for those unchanged items.

Re: Perceived design flaw regarding "delete completely"

PostPosted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:18 pm
by dssnider
Thanks. You just won a sale.
-Dennis