It's amazing how users complain when they buy bad software!
Before I start I'd like to paint the picture:
I am an IT consultant of many years and worked with some big names.
I started on UNIX at university but then they went NT so most of my dev work ended up on Windows.
I worked for about 10 years on various Windows projects, commercial and goverment.
I made a concious decicion to go down the Linux route, sonce I could see it would add to my CV and make me more employable.
I now will refuse work on Windows for 2 main reasons:
1. I like to be able to understand the environment in which I am coding.
2. I like to be able to have control over my machine.
Here, for you, the second applies.
Linux has "shell extensions" just the same as Windows, but they are not called that because they are nothing special, just a script or something linked to an icon in a folder.
No complicated DLL stuff.
If I want to remove it, I simply delete the icon and script.
No reboot, no DLLUnload.
Also the problem with the application that keeps reinstalling:
Here you will probably find again the installer is a script so _you_ can modify it to do the right thing and send the mod to the developers.
Or you can create a script which is called to remove the Desktop icon after the install is complete.
5 mins of you time at most and you can then forget it.
If you don't know how to do any of this there is google, your help manual.
This is the reason why I hate working on Windows.
As you rightly pointed out, the control of the machine is dominated by this bloody stupid operating system with a bad attitude.
My operating system (Linux, of course) is set up _exactly_ how I want it.
I don't even know what a "nag" screen is because I simply don't get them, ever!
All the people that I have set up with Linux have not only thanked me, but now wonder why this isn't available for everyone.
I even installed Linux on the computer which is used at nursery for the kids to learn computing.
It was sat on a table switched off because it didn't work correctly and the staff couldn't fix it.
I set it up with edubuntu and they now have it as a major activity of the children's day every day.
They have asked me to set up other systems as well since it is so successful.
Please, think about what you are writing.
Don't put up with rubbish on your machine.
Like you say: It's your bloody computer why have crap software on it?