Vista OOBE Part 1

I just unboxed and turned on my new (refurbished) HP 6560T PC running Vista Home Premium. Yes, I finally slowed down enough to let the Microsoft Vista steamroller catch me.

Although this PC is aimed at home and small business users, the Out Of Box Experience would make many of the people I know in those categories uncomfortable. First, the network connection didn't work. I know enough to dig down to the Network Connection applet and restart it, and it worked fine. Would your mother know to do that? Mine certainly wouldn't.

Second, the HP TotalCare and other setup crap gets really annoying. I'm almost certain I will delete most of these “helper” programs, but I'm going through all the standard steps just so I can “feel the pain” of all the users getting new Vista PCs this holiday.

Finally, though this box just arrived yesterday, in an official HP Refurbished box, I had to download four big update files. I don't think these were for Microsoft, but for HP's software. Even more aggravating, while the main download popup windows sat in the middle of the screen, the task bar popups alerted me to start the exact updates that were already in progress. Speaking of progress, there doesn't seem to be much in this installation sequence over XP, at least not so far.

Oops, there's HP's first “buy a service plan” window. I'll say to remind me later and see how long it takes before I get nagged again. Remember when “nag screens” were what you got from trial software, not purchased products?

Good: HP and Vista automatically handled my 1920 x 1200 LCD monitor early on in the setup process.

Bad 1: No Vista disks for recovery or reinstallation in the box. I will contact HP support and demand some disks and let you know what they say. HP folks told me in the past these were always free, so I expect no problems. Ha.

Bad 2: No sound from the speakers during installation, even though HP put a volume setting on the display like there should be sound. If the sound doesn't work, this box goes back tomorrow.

PS: the User Access Control is getting annoying already.