Hi @ShaneONeill_144
Thank you for that.
As mentioned in other threads, many of my issues with 3.5 started on a fresh install on a new machine so a deeper dive at the developer end seems to be required.
We lodged some of the issues with local support but it mostly ends up with a scattergun approach of 'update everything, reinstall everything, create new profiles/accounts for everything' that then creates an unfathomable quagmire of correlation vs causation for our locals to wade through.
I have lodged multiple Ideas for Esri to improve the broken installation or broken profile check/mitigate process as well as for Esri to publish known working configs (driver/OS/dependency lists) along with key performance indicators based on these configs and specified hardware configurations.
Further to this, I have asked our local support to work with the developer/interface team responsible for the specific UI/window/tool in question so they have a input matrix that defines a specific behaviour or error message - this will make it much more efficient to build a test methodology to see what actually influences a specific behaviour. To make this work, Esri will have to change some of their internal business processes.
I am now quite convinced that some issues in Pro are machine-state-change dependant i.e. the fact that something changes in your Windows environment is what fixes or breaks Pro; not the exact version that you update something to.
All this, to me, points to a very fragile application that requires a bit of a different development approach to bring it back to a robust & stable state.
The fact that you have commented with the same advice on 3 posts I am subscribed to, indicates to me that Pro is in serious need of either much more scrutiny before a version is released or a much more improved repair/audit/re-install process to make this common advice much more efficient, especially for those in more constrained corporate environments.
To this point - I have also lodged an Idea on the containerisation of Pro - getting a self-contained package of Pro with all it's dependencies in place, that is easy to swap out for another version, should be a key design goal for Esri. Changing the distribution or deployment of Pro to this paradigm can significantly reduce overall support costs related to the base installation.
Even if you are not directly on a team that has responsibility for these aspects, being an employee sees you much better placed to advocate for improvements, compared to a bloke on the other side of the world with 3 Pro licences.
