Last night, Windows Vista asked me to install Service Pack 2. I thought, “OK, I’ll start this at bedtime and it will be done when I get up.” Hah!
This morning, I came in to find the “are you ready to begin"?” message. Didn’t we begin last night? Well, we began a process – a phase, if you will – but each phase is a new beginning, even though no single phase is really really complete and independent. OK, yes, let’s “begin.”
A progress indicator appears. This is actually an ‘activity indicator’ because it has nothing to do with progress. A color slides across what would be a progress bar, if there were a bar that actually progressed. After an interminable time, the progress bar actually starts to imply progress is being made – abruptly at 50% done. So, we’re halfway there? Do I have 12 more hours? I really have no idea how much time has passed since the activity bar appeared. Progress inches forward. I idly consider starting some task that I know the system will interrupt. Each time I move the mouse or touch the keyboard, the progress bar jumps a bit more, as if to say, “hey, wait, I’m almost done.” Liar.
Finally, the screen indicates we’re really done. Kidding – You have to reboot, of course. I restart. The ‘installing updates’ message appears, indicating step 1 of 3. So, when it says step 1 of 3 is 15% done, what good does that do me, since I have no reason to believe each step last the same amount of time.
My complaint here isn’t merely that computers take too much time, it’s that they demand attention at inopportune moments and they pretend to communicate when they are saying nothing useful.
I want a button on every process that says, “Just do it.” Nerds can call this Quiet Mode; geeks can call it NonInteractiveMode=1 (or NIM1). When I click this button, every step of the process will execute without any intervention or any messages. I’m willing to accept a pop-up, “I’m done” message, but only at the true end of all related processes, not 17% of the way through step x of y (solve for y).
Keep one more thing in mind: A Service Pack (SP) bundles updates released in the months since the previous SP. If you are always connected to the Internet and allow Windows to update automatically, you should have much of the SP already. So, why does it take so long – seemingly every bit as long as installing the SP on a system that has sat on the shelf since the last SP?
Finally, after all was said and done and written up, Windows Update prompted, “Check for Updates?” Hell, no.
peace,
mjh
