Win 7 Beef of the day

As any of you who have followed me over the years will be aware, I've always been a staunch Microsoft supporter but that doesn't mean that I also think they are without fault.  This time they are definitly messed up and I'm not happy about it.
I run a Multi-Boot system with 3 operating systems on it.  Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.  In XP or Vista, if I open "My Computer" Then the drives appear in the order I wanted them to where C: is the primary system boot drive so the layout becomes.

• C: = Drive 0, Partition 0
• D: = Drive 1, Partition 0
• E: = Drive 2, Partition 0
• F: = Drive 2, Partition 1

But that isn't good enough for Windows 7, oh no, they have to change the drive order to always make the drive/partition that Windows 7 is installed on the C: drive.

• C: = Drive 2, Partition 1
• D: = Drive 0, Partition 0
• E: = Drive 1, Partition 0
• F: = Drive 2, Partition 0

Now you may ask "What difference does it make?".  Plenty.  I have a lot of software that i don't want to install on each hard drive but I do want to access it from each OS.  In the past, if there were registry settings involved all I had to do was export the registry settings from one OS into the registry of another OS by way of a *.reg file.

With Windows 7 arbitrarily, and without my permission, changing drive letters, I now have to manually edit each of those reg files to make sure the paths are correct.  In my case there are so many files involved that it's almost enough to make me stop using Windows 7 all together.  It's already gotten me to the point where I just don't bother booting into Win 7 more than once or twice a week and I get back out of there as quickly as possible.


Take note Microsoft,  all is not well in the world of Windows and people do have viable options now.