Vista SP1 Install

I am in the process of installing Vista SP1 on my HP AMD laptop.  The process is rather tedious, but you run a CMD script which updates your registry.  The update preps your system so you receive up to four hotfixes which are prerequisites for Vista SP1.  I applied two out of three required a restart.  I restarted after the third and my system was able to see the SP1 update when I forced a Windows Update check.

The download was ~300 Meg, and it was 'stuck' at 95% for the better part of an hour. 

After the download, you walk through an SP1 install wizard.  After the update is applied, you restart the system.  It restarts in character mode and applies 66,829 file updates which display on the top of the screen.  The last update is a registry update and the system automatically restarts into graphics mode.

After the restart, it updates the system in three stages, the progress is displayed as the Stage number and the percent complete for the stage.  The last phase took about 30-35 minutes and at this point, the update has taken several hours...

I was one of the many people who experienced the joy of the Vista "unauthorized change" feature and I'm not happy.

I'm not sure what happened, I install *lots* of beta, Microsoft, and third party software on all my systems.  I know what I am doing - aside from an engineering degree, I have been an MCSE since 1996 and MCT since 1998, teaching server and client operating systems.

Currently, my system is still unusable.  I will work on it later today and re-install an operating system if I am unsuccessful in fixing the Vista SP1 upgrade.  I may just choose to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, using an unused license I already own.  I am NOT happy.

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