Upgrade Path is slooow

[Guest]

Well I finally ran the upgrade program from XP Home SP2 to Vista RC1 (5728)
and I got to say bravo to MSFT as the upgrade process itself went smoothly
and effortlessly.

However it took just under two and a half hours to complete!

I ran the upgrade advisor before starting and was told to uninstall Nero 7
which I did. I also cleaned up XP as much as I can, ending up with a fully
defragged HD with over 90% free space.

I hit a couple of hiccups after the upgrade was done. First, AVG Free
version 7.1 which was running great in XP all of a sudden I was told that it
was 'broke' and no solution was presented so I just uninstalled it and tried
to re-install 7.1 however it wouldn't allow me to. Is there a specific
version of AVG Free that is Vista compatible?

Also, it didn't automatically find/install my CNet Ethernet card but the XP
drivers for it worked fine.

Something bizarre happened when I first tried running Outlook 2003; it gave
me an error in registry message, "Remote Exchange Extensions" Registry entry
is incorrect...or something similar sounding. Clicking OK (only option) about
4-5 times would clear the message but would come back after reboot whenever
Outlook is started but now out of the blue I no longer get the error. Strange.

But if there is one annoying thing that I can't get rid of from this upgrade
is this; In XP I had Outlook Express running to manage some newsgroups. I had
a shortcut for it in the start menu above the line. But now, it shows up in
the start menu as a paper icon Outlook Express shortcut that is dead and
cannot be removed from the start menu.

I can right-click it and request it removed from list but nothing happens.
Drag and drop does not do a thing with it. I try to even rename it and I get
a "the file or folder does not exist". Its properties say it is in
C:\Users\-My Name-\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, but
when I go there I see nothing resembling it. I want to uninstall/remove
Outlook Express but I don't see it anywhere in Add/Remove programs. It's just
driving me crazy and all I want is for its shortcut to be removed from the
start menu.

Apart from that, I must say the upgrade seems to be very functional and in
need of maybe some minor polishing.

Anyone else took him/her over two hours for the upgrade to complete? Also,
any input/advice on removing that Outlook Express shortcut from my Start menu
would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if double posted - I got errors in submission.

 

[Alex Plantema]

... if there is one annoying thing that I can't get rid of from this upgrade
is this; In XP I had Outlook Express running to manage some newsgroups. I had
a shortcut for it in the start menu above the line. But now, it shows up in
the start menu as a paper icon Outlook Express shortcut that is dead and
cannot be removed from the start menu.

I can right-click it and request it removed from list but nothing happens.
Drag and drop does not do a thing with it. I try to even rename it and I get
a "the file or folder does not exist". Its properties say it is in
C:\Users\-My Name-\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, but
when I go there I see nothing resembling it. I want to uninstall/remove
Outlook Express but I don't see it anywhere in Add/Remove programs. It's just
driving me crazy and all I want is for its shortcut to be removed from the
start menu.

Startmenu items above the line reside in C:\Users\-My Name-\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
or in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu.
Outlook Express isn't in the Add/Remove programs list in XP, only the shortcut can be removed, and I suppose that doesn't change when upgrading to Vista.
The link to Outlook Express might be in a common section as well. I don't know what happens with the XP All Users startmenu when upgrading to Vista because I didn't try that. If it has been moved to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu, the Outlook Express shortcut might be there or in one of its subfolders.

Anyone else took him/her over two hours for the upgrade to complete? Also,
any input/advice on removing that Outlook Express shortcut from my Start menu
would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't tried that yet, but a clean install of Beta 2 took a bit more than 30 minutes, whereas an upgrade to RC1 took 90 minutes.

 

[Guest]

Hi Alex,

Were you upgrading from Beta 2 to RC1 or from XP to RC1? I would guess that
it takes far less time to upgrade from Beta 2 than from XP.

2 1/2 hours is a long time but to be fair, it didn't require anything from
the user except for the first 5 minutes so you can almost call it an
unattended upgrade process.

 

[Jeppe]

Hi Alex,

Were you upgrading from Beta 2 to RC1 or from XP to RC1? I would guess that
it takes far less time to upgrade from Beta 2 than from XP.

2 1/2 hours is a long time but to be fair, it didn't require anything from
the user except for the first 5 minutes so you can almost call it an
unattended upgrade process.

Upgrade took 1 1/2 hours for me. And yes. It's pretty much unattended
after 5 mins.

 

[Chupacabra]

Upgrade took 1 1/2 hours for me. And yes. It's pretty much unattended
after 5 mins.

Upgrade from 5600 to 5728 took 1 hour on my P4, 3.2GHz 2GB RAM.

Strangely, a fresh install of 5728 on a slow-as-sin IBM X40 laptop only took
42 minutes!

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Any upgrade will take several times longer than a custom installation, but
the biggest factor is the number of apps being reinstalled after Vista is
installed. The time involved is roughly the same as the time needed to
install Vista and then manually install the same apps. The upgrade is a
little faster but only because it doesn't wait around for media and user
entries.

I am looking forward to the WET Companion since what I have read about it
suggests that it will provide a much more intelligent way to transfer the
apps.