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Windows 7 Upgrade Can Take Nearly a Day

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-sleep-on-it dept.

Eugen writes "A Microsoft Software Engineer has posted the results of tests the company performed on the upgrade time of Windows 7. The metric used was total upgrade time across different user profiles (with different data set sizes and number of programs installed) and different hardware profiles. A clean 32-bit install on what Microsoft calls 'high-end hardware' should take only 30 minutes. In the worst case scenario, the process will take about 1220 minutes. That second extreme is not a typo: Microsoft really did time an upgrade that took 20 hours and 20 minutes. That's with 650GB of data and 40 applications, on mid-end hardware, and during a 32-bit upgrade. We don't even want to know how long it would take if Microsoft had bothered doing the same test with low-end hardware. The other interesting point worth noting is that the 32-bit upgrade is faster on a clean install than a 64-bit upgrade, regardless of the hardware configuration, and is faster on low-end hardware, regardless of the Data Profile. In the other six cases, the 64-bit upgrade is faster than the 32-bit upgrade."

19 of 706 comments (clear)

  1. Almost competing by gparent · · Score: 4, Funny

    Good going MS! Add a few hours to that and they might beat the time it took for a few people I know to upgrade Ubuntu!

    1. Re:Almost competing by duguk · · Score: 4, Funny

      I could probably install Gentoo in that amount of time! By hand. Without my fingers.

    2. Re:Almost competing by WillKemp · · Score: 4, Funny

      Right, because so many people have issues where Windows breaks on their hardware. So few companies publish Windows drivers for their products these days.

      Windows 7's barely out and you've forgotten Vista already!

    3. Re:Almost competing by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a club for people like you. We have t-shirts.

    4. Re:Almost competing by snuf23 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Windows 95. The version that came on 13 floppy disks. Especially if you got a "lucky" bad sector on disk 13.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
  2. What's a day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    when you consider the lifetime of misery that follows?

    1. Re:What's a day by wild_quinine · · Score: 4, Funny

      What's a day when you consider the lifetime of misery that follows?

      It's like the complete opposite of Linux: you spend a lifetime of misery trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, and then get to use it for 20 hours before you realise you need to use something that only runs in Windows.

  3. Mid-end?! Really?! by erroneus · · Score: 5, Funny

    This reminds me of a funny bit from "The Three Stooges" that goes something like this:

    Moe: I'll take this end
    Larry: I'll take that end
    Curly: ...and I'll take the end in the middle!

    Just so you know, there isn't an "end" in the middle. There is "low-end" and "high-end" but there is no "mid-end." That would be medium level, mid-grade or average or something else.

    Mid-end is almost as jarring to the grammar nodes of my brain as "incentivize."

  4. This is why ... by David+Gerard · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. the Windows 7 Drinking Game exists. Let's add:

    * One shot every thirty minutes the install or upgrade process takes.
    * One shot if you have to start over.
    * Drain the bottle if it ATE YOUR GODDAMN DATA.

    Any others to add?

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  5. Re:Mid-end?! Really?! by oodaloop · · Score: 4, Funny

    I bet you're the kind of person who goes to Burger King and orders 2 Whoppers Junior, aren't you?

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  6. "the process will take a bit 1220 minutes" by PontifexPrimus · · Score: 5, Funny

    "the process will take a bit 1220 minutes"
    OMG, if the clean install is something like 4.8GB then that would be 4.13175854 * 10^10 bits, times 1220 minutes/bit equals 95 840 997.1 years!

    --
    -- Language is a virus from outer space.
  7. Re:Only Vista by Hal_Porter · · Score: 4, Funny

    I quite agree. I'm running build 16387 and it is very sta

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  8. Re:Only Vista by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yep. http://xkcd.com/612/

  9. Re:Only Vista by mrdoogee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently so, but it did click "preview" and "submit" for him, so that's nice.

  10. Re:Only Vista by wwahammy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Uh how could XP Mode NOT run half of their crap? It IS Windows XP.

  11. Re:Mid-end?! Really?! by rwv · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mmmm... Dollar Menu Burger King Food Mass.

  12. Re:Not a typo? by HogGeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    I vote for the "plain fucking stupid" option...

  13. Re:Only Vista by jayspec462 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Windows 7 detects joke explanation. Engaging Automatic Sarcastic WOOSH Generation Service.

    WOOOOOSH!

    Sarcastic WOOSH generation complete. Automatically submitting "Preview" and "Submit" buttons.

    --
    $comment =~ s/($verb)\s+($noun)/IN SOVIET RUSSIA, $2 $1s YOU!/g;
  14. Re:Mid-end?! Really?! by julesh · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously, who here hasn't charted out the $ to calorie ratios of all the menu items at popular fast food chains? They even make it easier by putting the calorie listings on the back of the place mat at mcdonalds!

    It isn't worth it. The free sachets of mayo win every time.