All of these technologies are pretty great, actually. MHTML solves real problems. VBScript is just bash but with different wording. OLE embeds are an awesome idea that has sadly fallen in disuse (embedding a spreadsheet inside a text document without resorting to weird table hacks? that's just a good idea!). VBA macros power more businesses than any startup ever will. CHM help files were absolutely wonderful and I'm sad to see them replaced with terrible websites that rely on Google for anyone to actually find anything. Being able to not only save your complex search result, but also share it is a great idea that didn't get advertised long enough. Sending someone a file so other people can also find "photos taken by my camera between last August and last September" without having send some kind of proprietary photo album is a great idea.
Say what you want about their proprietary lock ins and abhorrent business practises, but they have had some great ideas that took competing operating system years or even decades to copy. You still can't embed documents as easily and effective the way you can in Microsoft Office in most competing products. These features aren't abandoned, they're used by millions across the globe.
Microsoft does need to configure its tooling better to detect executable code. The VBScript at the end of the chain shouldn't have been executed. I'd be sad to see most of the other "legacy" tools disappear because of their malware capabilities.
Say what you want about their proprietary lock ins and abhorrent business practises, but they have had some great ideas that took competing operating system years or even decades to copy. You still can't embed documents as easily and effective the way you can in Microsoft Office in most competing products. These features aren't abandoned, they're used by millions across the globe.
Microsoft does need to configure its tooling better to detect executable code. The VBScript at the end of the chain shouldn't have been executed. I'd be sad to see most of the other "legacy" tools disappear because of their malware capabilities.