>  It would be nice to see some official documentation from Microsoft itself
> about how program installers should be designed and implemented,

It will all be documented and tested in detail as part of the Windows 7 Logo 
Program.

The PDF downloadable from this page gives an overview of what is 
required/tested for an application to pass:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=27028822-b172-4cec-91a3-26b610a4da79

To quote from the installation section:

"Applications should be installed to the Program Files folder by default. 
User data or application data must never be stored in this location because 
of the security permissions configured for this folder"

"All application data that must be shared among users on the computer should 
be stored within ProgramData"

"All application data exclusive to a specific user and not to be shared with 
other users of the computer must be stored in Users\<username>\AppData"

"Never write directly to the "Windows" directory and or subdirectories. Use 
the correct methods for installing files, such as fonts or drivers"


not during the installation. This is because there is no correct user 
location to store data at time of installation. Attempts by an application 
to modify default association behaviors at a machine level after 
installation will be unsuccessful. Instead, defaults must be claimed on a 
per-user level, which prevents multiple users from overwriting each other's 
defaults."

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