The great addage "don't fix what is not broken" often goes unheeded. The guilty ones include Microsoft.
With the newer version of Windows Live Messenger floating around now, I had to go about upgrading three of possible computers I'd use Messenger with. Instead of providing the usual MSI package for download and installation, the site only makes available a Live Installer which is a meta installer of sorts. Apparently Microsoft has spent billions of dollars in research to discover people who use Messenger also need to use Sign-in Assistant, Live Write, Mail, Photo Gallery, and some alternative detergent to wash dishes. Seriously, why can't I choose to just download Messenger alone off the site?
So this fanciful Live Installer goes through the paces of becoming a second-stage downloader and then stops at the last possible moment to taunt you and tongue out and flapping hands. A perpetual 99% downloaded status. Now, if a software was written to automate some processes with better efficiency, I can take that. But if the software is there to place efficiency gains into magnitudes of negative, I can live without that.
Thankfully, some one figured out how to exorcise the system of all this Live Evil.
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2873818&SiteID=1&pageid=0#2899044