Beta 2 Installation Impressions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Altmann
  • Start date Start date
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Chris Altmann

I thought I'd share my general impressions of the install process of Vista
Beta 2. Here goes.

My test machine is a P4 2.4 GHz on a Intel D865PERL MB with 1GB RAM and a
80GB 7200RPM HD. Not sure what my DVD drive's speed is but it's relatively
recent. Video card is a FX5200 with 128MB RAM.

Overall installation took about 40 minutes and it appears to have found
drivers for everything but the onboard RealTek audio.

The first couple of minutes of the install were kind of worrying as it got
to the static "Aurora" background screen with a stock mouse arrow and
appeared to sit there with no activity for a couple of minutes. I was close
to resetting when it displayed "Please Wait" and a hourglass for another
minute or two. I don't know if it was my hardware (I'll have to check if my
DVD drive lights are working now that I think of it), but some on screen
feedback would be nice at this point.

After that I got the first dialogs asking for the product key and time zone
(or was that later?) and to select/setup partitions. I deleted my old
partition and installed in that space. The "checklist" dialog came up and I
left it to its thing.

There may have been 1 or two reboots somewhere in this next segment, and the
order might be wrong (I didn't think I was going to write this at the time
and didn't make notes).

I got a rather XPish screen at one point (the one with stripes at the top
and bottom and text in the middle band, but in shades of gray). I don't know
what it was for but keeping the look from the earlier steps would probably
be a better experience.

At another point I got the animated Aurora effect while a progress bar
"progressed". This was the most disappointing part of the experience. It was
sad to see the animation strain to keep any semblance of framerate while
whatever background processes "progressed". If that can't be fixed for
release, I'd just drop the animation altogether as it just looks silly in
its current state.

(The next 2 steps also happen on normal bootup, preceded by a lone progress
bar from the old boot logo screen. I think the orb animation should be
extended into that period)

Then I got the shiny orb on a black background. Very pretty but way too
short. And it seems out of place during the install process because of the
next step

Then I got the static Aurora background again with various status messages.

Then it faded out and the desktop faded in fully rendered (except for the
sidebar). That was a nice touch. I'd like to see that effect when resuming
from sleep too.

That's it! I guess my point is: keep the look of the various steps
consistent, and show some sort of feedback on every screen that can update
smoothly given the real work being done behind it.
 
Well, doesn't sound like much of a smooth install, but successful never the
less. Submit your feedback to MS. :)
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The first couple of minutes of the install were kind of worrying as it got
to the static "Aurora" background screen with a stock mouse arrow and
appeared to sit there with no activity for a couple of minutes. I was close
to resetting when it displayed "Please Wait" and a hourglass for another
minute or two. I don't know if it was my hardware (I'll have to check if my
DVD drive lights are working now that I think of it), but some on screen
feedback would be nice at this point.
Click to expand...

I felt the same consternation at this step. If no active feedback will be
added at this stage, adding a "this step may take a while; do not restart"
to the "Please wait..." message is very much needed.
I got a rather XPish screen at one point (the one with stripes at the top
and bottom and text in the middle band, but in shades of gray). I don't know
what it was for but keeping the look from the earlier steps would probably
be a better experience.
Click to expand...

Normal screen and I don't think the colors are going to change. I believe
this is where the video hook is switching - unloading what was used for
setup (or POST) and then loading the drivers Vista will use.

I haven't seen choppiness in the aurora screens and wouldn't like watching
that either. I'm very glad that they made subtle changes to the aurora
colors. The lower right hand corner in previous renditions reminded me of
curtains that had been stained by bad dogs. ;^)
 
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