As the OS updates, apps could break like that. I know folk want a zero maintenance OS but this OS is still suffering from the ideas created back in 2000 and prior. That is, we get to backup and be ready to reinstall or fix as needed.
There are no signs Microsoft is going to change this area yet.
Bob
I try to help people with computers. One friend does essentially nothing but email reading, a few websites, a little locally installed solitaire. She's on Windows 8, so I set her up with the Shell. She also uses Quicken 2011 which is registered. Every time she allows an upgrade to Windows, the Shell software and Quicken are uninstalled. Indeed, they are moved or noted in a folder called "uninstalled software" on her desktop. Other programs are not affected, but she doesn't have much.
She has Norton, and she has Malwarebytes, both running just fine. This just happens when WINDOWS does an upgrade and it has happened several times.
I have googled this and some people have said they've lost programs in a similar way; the remedy is always to go back to an earlier system restore point, etc. Reinstalling these two programs takes less time than doing a system restore - the data in Quicken is not lost.
Is there some flag that needs to be set to stop WIndows from doing this?

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