Vista OS Install

Dervious · 13 Nov 2009 at 09:55

First things first - VISTA IS A PILE OF ****.

Yes, I`m angry !

OK, I`ll try and calm down.

Once in a while, I get "roped in" to sort of friends/family and customers PC woes. I`ve done quite a few XP installs in my time, along with all the updates and driver installs that go with the job. Yes, it takes a fair bit of time, but I can just about cope with that (being the impatient type). Luckily, I had very few Vista installs to do, but I`ve just had the misfortune to carry out such a task.

Toshiba Laptop, about 12 months old. Customer isn`t too techy, so I expected spayware/virus infections/fragmentation etc. It turned out that the machine was fairly healthy, apart from the fact that Vista wouldn`t boot properly - it got to the "please wait" screen, just before reaching the desktop, then made you wait, and wait, and wait......... until you switched off. A bit of research revealed that this is a fairly common issue, with no definite cure. I tried virus scans, disk checks, driver removal etc, but decided that the best course of action was an OS reinstall. Using the Toshiba restore utility, I was back to "factory settings" within about 20 minutes. From there, it has taken, I guess, 5 hours+ to get the machine to a state where it`s ready to go back to it`s owner. It takes 2-3 minutes to get to the desktop, even though it`s had a clean install. Over 80 Vista updates, many requiring a "restart" doesn`t help one`s sanity. And why did the update downloads keep stopping, even though I`m on an 8meg broadband connection ? (web access was fine during the update downloads), so I suspect that Microsoft were just trying to push me into putting Win7 on the machine.

Why the **** can`t Microsoft produce a one-click update utility, for those of us who don`t want to "babysit" our PC`s while updates are taking place ? Surely it would be possible to download all of the updates in one package (700meg download, give or take), and get the software to sort out what needs installing, and to control the restarts. We could walk away, and come back a few hours later to a fully up to date PC. OK, if the update procedure bombs out for some reason, we could just go back to the old fashioned "manual" method, but I can`t see that happening very often.

Maybe my new SSD/Win 7 install in my own PC has made these problems seem worse, but even so, it`s made me realise that Vista really was a bad OS, I`m glad I skipped that particular product in my own machine.

Rant over.

Burnsy2023 · 13 Nov 2009 at 12:19

I'm not quite sure what you're ranting about. The update procedure is the same as it's ever been and you'll encounter the same issues on other platforms.

V4NT0M · 13 Nov 2009 at 12:40

I think I've found the problem: The laptop is ****.

None of the PC's/Laptops I've installed/used vista on take 2-3 minutes to get to the desktop. You don't have to babysit it, it will install them for you automatically if you know how to and it's not exactly hard. I also don't understand why you took the update procedure on yourself, it's designed to update while you're doing other stuff, give it back to the owner and have it update while they're checking Facebook or whatever they do.

Also what is "spayware" something to do with dogs?

In closing, I've never really had a problem with Vista, but I guess it's the same with every other windows platform I've used, rarely ever achieved the BSOD in XP etc, maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe it's something else...

marmalade · 13 Nov 2009 at 14:14

That's why Bill or was it Steve said and let there be Windows 7. The quickest and most intuitive OS yet. Put it on a USB and its even quicker:
http://download.cnet.com/Windows-7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool/3000-18513_4-10972600.html

SiriusB · 13 Nov 2009 at 14:35

I know how you feel about the slow updates. I had to install Vista 64 Pro on a high-end workstation a month or so ago and my word! The OS install itself flew past with no issues. Came to update it and it took 2 and half hours. 2 and a half hours I had to sit around waiting because it has to be fully up to date before the software the client needed would let me install it.

I can understand it taking that long to perhaps download, but the download only took maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes at most. What is it doing to take two hours to install such a small download? Be quicker to copy and paste the updates myself!

In the end though Skyfall is correct in that in most cases it does its thing while you go about your business so not a huge issue. It was for me as I couldn't carry on until it was done. Windows 7 is much faster at updating, but it is still shiny so not that many updates yet!

Dervious · 13 Nov 2009 at 16:24

Skyfall said:
I think I've found the problem: The laptop is ****.

None of the PC's/Laptops I've installed/used vista on take 2-3 minutes to get to the desktop. You don't have to babysit it, it will install them for you automatically if you know how to and it's not exactly hard. I also don't understand why you took the update procedure on yourself, it's designed to update while you're doing other stuff, give it back to the owner and have it update while they're checking Facebook or whatever they do.

Also what is "spayware" something to do with dogs?

In closing, I've never really had a problem with Vista, but I guess it's the same with every other windows platform I've used, rarely ever achieved the BSOD in XP etc, maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe it's something else...

The reason I took on the updates myself is that the laptop suddenly decided to wait on the "please wait" screen - forever. There was no evidence that the owner of the laptop had done anything to cause this, and I suspected that maybe a windows update had caused the problem (or even a driver update). If I had taken the laptop back, with the updates (all 70+ of them & Service Pack 2) still to be completed a) I`m sure the customer might have been a bit "bothered" by all the restarts and "click here to install" requests and b) I wanted to make sure that the original problem didn`t return. Being the type of person who wants to make as sure as possible that the laptop is working properly, I simply wanted to return it with all updates completed, with anti-virus and sp(a)yware installed.

All I was "ranting about" is the way Vista (and yes, XP used to do it also) does a few updates, asks for a restart, then downloads and carries out more updates again, and again etc. Finally, when you think you`ve finished, up pops another update, which happens to be a service pack that takes another 20 minutes to download and install (or in the case of the 41mb download this morning, over 20 minutes just to download on an 8 meg connection !).

"Spayware" was a typing error, but I suppose it might be something that a vet might use.

Dervious · 13 Nov 2009 at 16:31

SiriusB said:
I know how you feel about the slow updates. I had to install Vista 64 Pro on a high-end workstation a month or so ago and my word! The OS install itself flew past with no issues. Came to update it and it took 2 and half hours. 2 and a half hours I had to sit around waiting because it has to be fully up to date before the software the client needed would let me install it.

I can understand it taking that long to perhaps download, but the download only took maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes at most. What is it doing to take two hours to install such a small download? Be quicker to copy and paste the updates myself!

In the end though Skyfall is correct in that in most cases it does its thing while you go about your business so not a huge issue. It was for me as I couldn't carry on until it was done. Windows 7 is much faster at updating, but it is still shiny so not that many updates yet!

Ah, you`ve been there.

I`m simply suggesting that for those of us that get asked to "sort out" a poorly PC, and feel that a fresh install is required, the Windows updates can take ages, especially if the copy of Windows that was originally installed is a year or two old. Instead of having the updates install in several batches, wouldn`t it be better if Microsoft had a fully automated update application that allowed the user to click "update", go and do the shopping/ go to sleep/watch X Factor/play MW2, then come back to find that the 78 updates and service packs had all been downloaded and installed ? Must be possible, surely.