trishussey
on - last edited on by
Rhombus
Start up confusion
I think this problem is Toshiba's and not Window's per se, but when I started up the machine its "new machine mode" was essentially, the same as if you had wiped the hard drive and were resetting it to factory from the backup discs (which I still have to burn for her).
The problem with this approach is that instead of seeing "Welcome to Windows, this is going to be awesome" you see "we're going to wipe the partition (yeah like novice users know what a "partition" is) and reinstall to factory settings" even I was taken aback at the wording and had to read it twice to make sure I understood it.
Okay, so it's setting up the system, fine.
After going through the process (meaning watching progress bars go across the screen), the machine reboots and displays the same message that it did at the start of the process. Not "we're continuing the setup process" but "we're setting up your machine for the first time." Confusing? I was wondering if it went through the process correctly and if we were going to have to go through the erase and install again.
For new users...not cool. Another reboot and we're finally getting to Windows 7...
Windows 7, same as it ever was
Look I've used everything from DOS through (almost) all the versions of Windows and I didn't see anything different about the set up process now. Same basic stuff, name, password, timezone, etc. It was easy, but still nothing giving us an idea about how long this will take.
Finally another reboot and we're good.
Crapware is for losers
Beyond the basics of getting the machine updated (that's cool, I think all off-the-shelf machines regardless of OS will have to do this) and online, my next job was figuring out and getting rid of the crapware that is installed on machines now.
I will give props to Toshiba for not loading it up with a ton of stuff, but I still had to ditch MS Office 2010 trial from the system and turn off some of the strange Toshiba utilities that were installed.
Or at least hide them.
My mother-in-law is a novice user who really only wants to do email, online banking, and a few other things, so simple and clean is best.
Windows 7 vs Vista
For all the commercials and my friends saying that Windows 7 is leaps and bounds ahead of Vista, I'm not 100% sold on that assessment. As far as me getting the machine set up with anti-virus and such, the process was the same. Same dire warnings from Windows about your machine being at risk. The Control Panel system is still the same, so are the basics of the file system. Not a lot new that I saw or experienced.
How I Would Make It Better
First off the computer should boot straight into the basics of Windows setup (name, password, timezone, country). I know this has to come first to get things into place, so I don't begrudge an OS for needing to do this. Forcing a user through the restore to factory process is confusing and wastes time.
Next I think users should be walked through an optional wizard to get the basics ready. Something like "while updates are being downloaded to your system, let's get other things done..."
Get Live Mail set up, get virus and spyware apps installed, set up the browser. Need to import settings from another computer? Okay.
And this must be optional. If I'm starting up the laptop I want one click to say, "no thanks, I'm good on my own."
While I installed Chrome for my mother-in-law, I'm not 100% sure that Microsoft should be forced to offer alternate browsers in a quick start ... maybe not forced, but I would certainly appreciate it.
Bottom Line: Make it fun, Make it fast
It took me over an hour (maybe close to two hours) before my mother-in-law could start using her laptop. Between waiting for the factory reset, downloading updates (and rebooting), and all the other stuff, she just had to wait while I did a lot of black box stuff that she won't ever have to do again, but had to be done first. I think people should be able to be able to open a new laptop and be having fun with it in 30 minutes or less.
And for the record, I'm not saying that Apple is perfect in this regard either. Yes, they make it pretty cool, but I think they certainly could make things a little faster at getting to the fun part.
Now that my mother-in-law's machine is set up, I have to think about remote tech support. That's a topic for another day.
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