Detailed at the MSDN Blog, the Windows team explains how little manoeuvres like transferring entire folders at once — rather than file by file as in previous versions — will make an enormous difference. On the largest simulated system, for example, it’d take over eight hours (!) to install Windows 7. It’d take Windows 8 less than one. This speed also owes largely to Microsoft’s push to sell Windows 8 as an optimised online update, rather than a physical medium pile of code goop.
Gone too are the dizzying number of setup options we’ve come to equate with using Windows — number 8 will have one wizard for everyone, seen above. Eleven clicks, as opposed to a carpet bombing of installation windows. It’s streamlined and informative, letting you know what programs will work on your new install, which won’t work, and what you can do about the latter. All of these small things are (probably I hope?) going to make Windows 8 unlike distended iteration before it. [MSDN Blog]
Mogwai888000
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 6:54 AMWindows 7 is nice and stable but if they dumb down windows any more to make it more ‘user’ friendly (i.e. hiding the options that power users use all the time and re-arranging the network cofiguration panel) we might as well all just move to mac OS and be done with it.
Mr Odd
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 7:08 AMI agree. All windows 7 asks is what language and where to install. Mac OS asks more questions than that already (mind you they are mostly not IT questions IE your name and what time zone your in).
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:37 AMI wish my MacPro has asked me what time zone it was in, because it is completely incapable of displaying the correct time. I’ve stopped wasting time trying to get it with the programme, I just ignore it ow.
Nick
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:38 PMSystem Preferences -> Date & Time -> Time Zone.
Set time zone automatically or choose your own.
Andrew
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:28 AMYou should probably read the blog post. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/21/improving-the-setup-experience.aspx
From what I can tell, it’s a streamlining of the upgrade process. Less wizards, all combined, more efficient. Not an Apple style “Dumbing down”.
I’ve installed the Dev Preview on a couple of systems now. They have not removed any options. It is a hell of a lot faster tho. 12mins on a Core2Duo with a 5200RPM HDD. 16 on an Athelon x2. Truly impressive speed gains.
Cameron
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:19 AMWhy do they feel the need to cut down this process? As it stands there’s already too little options in there. It’s not like this is the kind of thing regular users will be doing on a daily basis, this requires a bit of knowledge in what you’re doing, and is likely something you’ll only do a couple of times on any one PC.
wsDK_II
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:41 AMThere will still be the options for ‘advanced’ users
Virus__
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:30 AMWindows hasn’t been hard to install for years. XP was a breeze to install.
82% less clicks so what there’s a total of like 3? Windows 7 was bloody easy to install and installed on most machines for me in under 20 minutes. With the added bonus of NiNite I would be up and running within the hour with all my basic programs only needing to reinstall Adobe CS5, Office & some Steam Games from backups.
Personally I thought the Windows 7 installation wizard was perfectly fine! I guided a friend in Canada over MSN on how to install Windows 7 on her laptop and she went fine, everything worked smoothly & she was a computer noob in that area of things.
lambomann007
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:27 PMWell Virus__, that’s the point. You had to guide your friend. Microsoft is trying to make it easy enough so that you don’t have to do that, she can do it herself. :)
Alex
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:31 PMbut but but what about all the free food and drinks I been getting for installing crap on friends PCs ? ? ?
chugs
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 11:15 AMyou get free food and drinks??
I normally just get sex and drugs. man i’ve been missing out.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:36 AMow is WIn7 hard to install? You just start the process, walk away and come back half-an-hour or so later. I can imagine it being faster but, realistically, I just don’t see how it could be any easier.
TSH
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 11:06 AMThis, pretty much.
It bears remembering that most of the improvements mentioned are not for clean installs, but for upgrading from previous versions of Windows without the “backup-format-restore” process that nerds like us are used to doing. I can definitely understand the appeal of making upgrading super-easy, fast and frustration-free for the vast majority of their users (i.e., non-nerds).
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 8:42 AMI wish we could edit these posts. I’d also point out that I didn’t find the Win8 Dev Preview installation to be vastly different to previous Windoze upgrades.
Andrew
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 9:18 AMCould you explain to me the “Windoze” thing you do? I think it’s an implication that Windows is boring, but if you wanted to highlight something that is boring, you’d be talking about the vapid UI design hole that is iOS and OSX. Grey on grey and squircles. It’s like you have some perception hangover from the 90′s.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 9:34 AMOld habits die hard, I’m afraid. I think most people who spend much time here would see me as an over-the-top Windows fanboi, so hopefully this little nod to the past allows me to maintain some perspective.
That said, I really don’t like Win7 much at all. Vista was clearly better in several ways. MS over-reacted and changed things that didn’t need changing, just to distance Win7 from Vista. So really, it is only since I almost bought an iPod and discovered Zune HD that my attitude towards MS (which is used to type as “M$”) has softened somewhat. However, it seems to be a case of one step forward, two steps back in many ways. e.g. I spent a few hours on the new Music Marketplace on the weekend. They have a pretty decent range but their prices are absolutely ridiculous. Every album I might have bought was $30! They also wrecked the Zune HD experience when they launched WinPhone7 last year, by blocking our access to the database of band bios and photos, so I am not quite ready to give up on the “Windoze” thing just now.
I completely agree about MacOS and iOS though. I use a MacPro at work and there is only one thing I really like about it (Preview). As I said above, I can’t even get the stupid thing to display the correct time. It has also crashed on me, something no Win7 or Vista PC has ever done. But Aero is incredibly ugly and the big, fat borders are just horrible (I use a “Classic” theme). Fortunately they are on the way out with Win8, I’m just hoping the final version will have customisable colours because I really hate blue highlights and black text on white..
Andrew
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 11:13 AMWow, what? I found nothing but plusses moving from Vista to 7. I’ll admit that Vista wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be, but I only upgraded to Vista after the driver issues were sorted. I actually think MS learned boatloads from that experience. They now seem to work very closely with “hardware partners” because they truly cannot afford a repeat performance from a public relations standpoint. The result is a lot of openness about future plans to allow the world to prepare for any changes they may make… the blog from which this article drew it’s info being case in point.
Anyway. I find the ‘Windoze’ tag particularly off target. If anything, MS are now the ones truly innovating in the computing/software world while the rest cling to outdated “app” and desktop product driven paradigms. WinRT with HTML5/JS CSS strylesheet driven UIs opens the door to a world of device interoperability and cloud computing in a way that truly will allow us to shift to the cloud – rather than figting against it in a “redesign your website for our phone” way that certain others are doing. That model is boring, old, archaic, dated, but well marketed, profitable and easy to understand for the masses and senior citizens. The new hotness is in the cloud, not siloed on your device.
And then we look at UI hotness. OMG. What they are doing is amazing on multiple levels. I know Mac fanboys like to cite the way it’s teams work together, but they look like divorcing spouses in comparison to the whatever the hive mind at redmond are doing. That whole “digitally authentic” label they put on it doesn’t come close reflecting the symbiosis between code, interface and our brains. Pure voodoo.
Jaezass
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 9:43 AMYes +1 for editing comments!
I too found 8 dev similar to 7
Jaezass
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 9:47 AMReally? you found Vista better than 7? Sorry dude but I’m afraid I can’t agree there. Given how similar 8 is to 7 only reinforces how good 7 is! :)
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:52 AMBeing completely happy with XP, I waited until I bought a new machine to try Vista. By then all the driver issues had been sorted and SP1 was available. The first thing I did was turn off UAC and the experience was fantastic. Then Win7 comes along and it is ugly (I love Vista’s taskbar) and WMP is no longer able to find new music or accurately work out how much music will fit on the USB Flash drives I use to listen to music in the car. WMP is also much uglier in Win7 than in VIsta. Everywhere else it is pretty much identical. Overall, I can’t see one thing that it does better but things I use regularly are measurably worse. It was definitely more of a marketing exercise to distance itself from the perception of Vista, rather than an actual improvement.
Andrew
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 11:31 AMYup, when I first moved to Win7 I tried to make the taskbar more like Vistas… and then I discovered the jumplists and embraced the overall concept of ‘pinning’, so I decided to try it their way. From a productivity standpoint, the Win7 UI trumps vista in a big way. You should take a look at it again, but try to embrace the changes.. they weren’t made arbitrarily for the sake of change/marketing.
I also use WMP for syncing music too. Not a problem for me. Just remember that a 4GB flash drive actually only has about 3.6GB available (that old gem). Oh,. and use the libraries. They’re pretty sweet :)
chris
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:57 PM+1 Windows 7 was a massive improvement from vista. From day one i installed it, i’ve had no crashes or driver issues it was probably one fo the most complete windows from day 1 i’ve ever used… I just cant wait for windows 8 and win8 for tablets.. :)
Ben Zemm
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 12:13 AMThe libraries confuses one of my workmates. I don’t know how he does it, but he keeps getting all the subversion metadata folders mixed up with the working files. This has caused issues for him on more than one occasion. “Show hidden files” is unticked. I haven’t had these issues on my work Windows 7 machine, but I also use Mac (which can be even more annoying with svn)
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:25 PMWhilst I don’t disagree with any of that, I am still not ready to trust MS fully. I’ve had awful experiences trying to get info about features on my ZuneHD and the amount of info about WP7 is an absolute joke. I’ve been finding really handy features by accident because MS seem to have a pathological aversion to providing comprehensive manuals for any of their products. Even with Windoze, you learn more from places like this than you ever could from their stupid Help system. e.g. Almost everyone I know right-clicks on the “Remove Hardware” icon in WinXP (we still use that at work), which takes you through a convoluted process of selecting and removing a device from a dialog window, when all they need to do is left-click and choose from a list, as Win7 does now with either right or left click. Now, if you open up “Help & Support” and search for “Safely Remove Hardware”, none of the “Top 30″ results address that feature, so it is hardly surprising people don’t know how to do it easily. With both my ZuneHD and WInPhone7 I am left wondering whether I am getting the most out of it or whether there are some really cool features that I simply don’t know exist. It can be very frustrating and is typical of the way MS are.
All this new openness is incredible, it actually left me knowing more about the Mango update than I did about the original WP7 that I’ve been using all year, but they still have a long way to go to convince me, I’m afraid. OTOH, there is probably nothing Apple can ever do to convince me they have anything worthwhile to offer.
TSH
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 11:09 AMahaha yeah good documentation is aboslutely impossible to find from either MS or Apple. All the helpful information I’ve ever found for Office, Windows or OSX has been from forums and expert blogs/communities.
Jason
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:18 AMWait. Since when has Windows been difficult to install? When I was a young teenager I had to problems installing Windows 9X or Windows 2000 either on top of an old installation, side by side or on a fresh format. I was 13, and it was a breeze. Windows 7 is even simpler. No one should say installing Windows is “hard”.
If anything we need more and better installation options. I for one would like better partition options in Windows install; I’d rather not have to use 3rd party utilities.
wsDK_II
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:44 AMYou have to remember that a mac user posted the story, so anything that isnt apple is ‘hard’
jAck
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 7:58 PMCondasending troll is condasending…
Jason
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 12:16 AMTouche sir!
Ash
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:22 AMAgreed. I never had a problem ever understanding or installing Win XP or Win 7 (both clean installs) and Im not that tech savvy. Its easy. And for the none-tech savvy person, get a teenager to do it, or buy a PC/laptop that already has Win8 installed.
All Im keen on is speed improvements. If its quicker to install and feels less bloated (I cant explain the feeling any better than that) than Win7, then Win8 will be great. Im looking forward to it.
Parker
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:37 AMWindows XP: sit there in front of the computer for hours while it installs as it requires user input every few minutes
Windows 7: set the language, go away for a bit and it’ll be pretty much done when you get back.
jack
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:47 AMIf anything, I want more options on my install.
My main grief is setting the user profile locations to a secondary disk. (Common amongst power users now when trying to preserve the precious write limits on their ssd)
That freaking process is painful. Quit install halfway through, change system settings, reboot via sysprep, blurgh. Should be ONE FREAKING OPTION UNDER ADVANCED INSTALLATION!
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:55 AMI’ve never used those stupid things. I’ve been using the same drive/directory structure of 15 years and that stuff is just useless krap for me. I wish I could eliminate it altogether. I agree though that options for simple and advanced installation would be excellent.
jack
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 11:14 AMFair enough.
And whilst most users dont want/need to customize their environments on install, when you want to, it should just be a simple ‘advanced install’ button.
And more advanced than Win7′s “Would you like to quick format, or fully format this partition”.
Greg
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 5:02 PMI have only ever installed Windows 7 from a USB flash disk, and never has it taken more than 20 minutes. What the hell is everyone else doing??
poltak
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 7:01 PMNever really understood what was so hard about installing a modern OS… All the info is there telling you what to do at each step, same as following an installer wizard on any generic piece of Windows software. The hardest thing about an install would have to be the disk partitioning/formatting.
From my experience (of installing many different OS’s on laptops for people), installing Windows 7 may not be as easy as say Ubuntu or Mint, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than OS installs used to be less than a decade ago. Dumbing it down further seems a bit pointless really :| Speeding up the process by doing multiple things at once (see Linux’s Ubiquity installer wizard) does though.
TSH
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 11:13 AMGuys, read the article. It’s not talking about clean installs that nerds like us are used to. It’s talking about upgrade installs from the POV of Joe Public (the majority of their customers). Most people still rely on the default “My Documents/Music/Video/etc” folders; don’t have a proper backup regime; don’t really manage their files. Which is fine, since they’re not nerds and they have other interests – but what MS wants to do is make it easier for *those* people to click 11 times and in an hour have all their old files, programs etc. ready to go on a brand new OS.