So What Else is Windows Stuck On?

I actually love Windows, but I ran into this error “fatal: LF would be replaced by CRLF in…” and decided to make a list of stuff that annoys me.

Windows still uses CR LF because DOS used it, and DOS used it because some metal box in the 60s needed a physical carriage return and a line feed to move a piece of paper. Other systems dropped the ceremony decades ago. Windows kept it because a terrifying amount of software , and I mean government forms, hospital systems, 1990s accounting apps written by “that guy who left the company in 2004” expects CR LF. And Microsoft will burn the Earth before breaking enterprise compatibility. Somewhere deep in Windows there’s probably code that still whispers: “is this SimCity?”

Notepad only learned LF existed in 2018, which is insane when you think about it, but typical Microsoft fashion: don’t fix the root issue, just let tools babysit it. VS Code cleans your files. Git warns you passive-aggressively. Editors silently mop up after the OS like tired parents.

And that’s when I realized line endings are just one artifact in a much bigger archaeological site.

Drive Letters

That’s my next victim. Windows still thinks every storage device deserves its own alphabet letter. Every other OS just mounts things into a sane, single tree like a sane person. Windows is basically labeling floppy disks.

Case Sensitivity Per Folder

Windows pretends filenames are case-insensitive, except when it doesn’t, because you can turn on case sensitivity per folder. Why? For whom? Even the statement itslef sounds insane.

cmd.exe Is Immortal

cmd.exe refuses to die, and honestly, I respect it. cmd.exe Is Immortal — i actually love cmd.exe,. it’s powershell I cant stand or learn.

PowerShell is powerful but everything is an object, everything wants to be piped, everything needs a seminar.

Program Files x86, Program Files, and SysWOW64

Why are 32-bit programs in Program Files (x86)? Why are 64-bit programs in Program Files? Why is SysWOW64, the 32-bit folder called SysWOW64???

Backslashes

Every modern system uses /. Every URL uses /. Every programming tutorial outside Windows uses /.

Windows uses \ because DOS originally used / for command switches, and now we're cursed forever. And the worst part is you can’t even paste a Windows path into most tools without escaping the slashes . I once broke a Python script for 20 minutes because of a single unescaped backslash in a config file.

I know I left out a lot, so feel free to rant in the comments below.