Poor design decisions have plagued Microsoft but it looks like they might be improving. Case in point: placement of MS Outlook PST files. Previous to Outlook 2010, Microsoft thought it was a good idea to put PST files into a hidden directory. For reasons only they know, they split configurations for Outlook into two directories: ..\application data\Microsoft\Outook and ..\local settings\application data\Microsoft\Outlook. The autofill file and other files were stored in the visible directory, the data was stored in the hidden local settings directory. In Windows XP, with hidden directories made invisible by default, the averge user could not easily access his own PST file. Now with the advent of Outlook 2010 it looks like they’ve finally figured out that data should be included in documents section where it has always belonged. Outlook 2010 puts the files into Documents\Outlook Files. Now that’s innovation we can use. That change puts it right up there with the guy who figured out we wanted the power button on the front of the PC.
