Just recently installed Vista Ultimate 64bit and thought i'd pass along some findings on the initial install process and impressions while things are still fresh.
Keep in mind i've heard and read as much as any of you that may read this ahead of time but i also set out to try and be as un-biased and open minded as i can.
First i'll explain that for testing purposes this wasn't exactly a conventional install..in other words because i was looking at all features and non-features i didn't simply slap the DVD in a drive and select install. This was on my newer benchtest machine
Specs Here that was completed about 6 months ago. Although this rig is a multi-boot setup (4 Os's) i decided at the last minute to leave that out of the equation since after testing it will be getting a clean Vista install in that enviornment. So for these purposes the other drive was disconnected and Vista exists for now on it's own drive.
That being said...
The initial install was what i thought relatively smooth/no nonsense procedure. The initial black and white screen was a tad shocking...didn't even Win98 have a colored background ? Maybe they forgot. At any rate here is where Vista both shone and stumbled at the onset.
Most prompt screens are gone and have been intuitively automated...i think the only prompt you will remember from old flavors of Windows is the Time Zone choice. Since i run most of the time on the Admin account i chose that and 2 dummy accounts to test User and Admin seperation. Smooth as glass so far.
It automatically detects any other Windows installs and lets you select where it should land (NTFS only). There is also a prompt for migrating settings from another install but it didn't apply here so i clicked past.
Driver detection was the longest section and after that the file copying seemed to really fly...much quicker than i had expected.
Approx. 20 minutes later it stated it would re-boot a few times and Vista would be installed.
Upon re-boot (2 or3 i forgot to note) Bingo i'm seeing a nice green haze background for 20 seconds and then the Vista Welcome Center loads. Minimising this right away i start to dig into the innards.
Here's where it gets interesting...... continued