OOBE Time Wasting with the HP tx2051 Entertainment PC

Well, after some ‘fun with shipping’ games this morning, I managed to pick up the HP tx2051 Entertainment PC (yes, it’s a Tablet PC). Team GBM will be testing this out over the next several weeks and I got first dibs. I got back to my office and turned it on about 11:18 for the first set up. It is now 1:20pm and I’m going through the third round of Windows updates. This is on top of the pretty laborious process of loading all of HP’s stuff onto the device after you do the initial Vista install.

I can’t blame HP alone for anything other than their own software install. Some of it is indeed CRAPWARE-why do I need an eBay icon on my desktop? But when I think of a new user who is going through this for the first time, my heart sinks. Although HP includes some music that plays at least once during the install drudgery, there’s certainly no entertainment or ‘wow’ factor when you’re installing Windows updates.

Oh, and for all of those folks who still think XP is the cat’s meow and best way to go? When was the last time you set up an XP box and did the updates. Yeesh. Especially on an lower powered machine like the HP 2133 Mini-Note. Waiting for American Airlines to resolve their recent woes couldn’t be any less excruciating.

This is just absolutely getting out of control.