RobMensching.com /Blog
when setup isn't just xcopy

I think I've read about this...

For years I've searched out descriptions of life in a software startups to see how "the other half lives".  As many of you know, my entire professional career (going on 8 years) has been at Microsoft.  More specifically I've worked in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft Windows Core.  Those groups are probably the very anti-thesis of "software startup".

However, tonight, sitting here right now, I think I've finally had a taste of a phenomenon I've seen discussed by those that release their first "something" from their startup.

You see, right before you ship that "something" you've been pouring your heart and soul into, you are working at a frenzied pace.  It is a race against the clock to get your work done before "time is up" and that that "something" goes out the door.  If you did your homework right that frenzy is just a huge push to make sure everything works the way you know it does.

That's what all of today was for me.  A big push to make sure that Windows Vista and Office 2007 could be purchased and installed from the Internet smoothly.

But it isn't the frenzied push that was a unique experience for me.  What I'm actually talking about is the strange floating feeling that occurs after you push the button and that "something" is made available live.  It is what I imagine stepping out into space feels like.  Suddenly you are out there in the vacuum weightless waiting for the feedback from your users... waiting for what happens next.

Tonight, at approximately 9 PM PST (midnight eastern time) we pushed the button in Windows Marketplace and the Windows Vista and Office 2007 were out there live.  In the next couple hours we'll start seeing the data come back in informing us how well these products are selling electronically.  But, until then, we are all just hanging out waiting weightlessly.

This is so freakin' cool.

Zune desktop theme: Black is back (downlevel).

I've been doing a fair bit of UI programming (more on that later).  Kinda' scary to think that they let me write code that draws pretty pictures on the screen.  What's even scarier is that I'm actually having a good time with it.  I think it has a lot to do with the kick ass designers I work with.

Anyway, I was sending some screen shots around to the designers on my team and Jascha (King of Designers for Windows Marketplace) commented that the progress bar should be green.

I chuckled and mentioned that my progress bar was orange because I installed the sexy new Zune desktop theme.  I promised that the progress bar would be green when viewed in the standard Blue Windows XP theme.

Anyway, I just wanted to toss that out there because:

1.  I'm going to be posting some screen shots of some UI stuff I've done lately and didn't want anyone to think the black title bar and orange progress bars were something I did.

2. The black Zune desktop theme for Windows XP is freakin' cool for machines that can't run Windows Vista.  I like Vista's black better but Zune does it alright for the downlevel.

In the meantime, keep coding, you know I am.

What do you get when you download Windows Vista from Marketplace?

This is a blog entry that I've been trying to find time to write for the last week.  Unfortunately, the push for GA-day has been all encompassing.  In any case, the news that Windows Marketplace would deliver Windows Vista (and Office 2007 too!) electronically went a lot bigger than I expected.  I suppose the fact that the news was carried by the Associated Press should have made it clear that things were going to go big.  Trevin actually captured the press coverage a bit better than I did.

Out there I found comments at a couple places where people speculated that Windows Marketplace would be distributing ISO images of Windows Vista and that the customer would have to burn the ISO image to a DVD before installing to Windows Vista.  That is the way that MSDN distributed the Betas and RCs to developers but is not what we are releasing from Windows Marketplace.  For Windows Marketplace, we wanted a solution that would not require special hardware (DVD burner) or knowledge (how to use DVD burning software to burn an ISO image).

When you buy Windows Vista from Marketplace you will be able to download three files: VistaSetupPrep.exe, boot.wim and install.wim.  The two .wim files are the bulk of the download (for the 32-bit version they are ~116 MB and ~2.2 GB respectively) and contain the stuff that actually gets installed.  VistaSetupPrep.exe is smaller (for 32-bit this is ~74 MB) and contains the files necessary to actually do the install.

I highly recommend using the digital locker assistant to download Windows Vista.  The digital locker assistant handles three very important steps for you.  First, the assistant has the ability to resume the download of files should your download be interrupted for any reason.  If you do not use the digital locker assistant and your download is interrupted then you will have to start the download over from the beginning.  Second, the assistant will verify that the files were properly downloaded when complete.  Since Windows Vista is composed of such large files there is a chance that corruption can occur while the files are in transit.  The digital locker assistant verifies the files before launching the install and that improves the chances of a successful install the first time through.  Finally, all three files have to be downloaded into the same folder.  The digital locker assistant ensures that files stay together.

After all of the files are downloaded, you can launch VistaSetupPrep.exe (or simply click the "Install" button in the digital locker assistant).  VistaSetupPrep.exe then extracts the 500+ files compressed inside it and links the .wim files into into a folder called "Vista".  The end result is that the Vista folder is a replica of the Windows Vista DVD.  Before VistaSetupPrep.exe exits, it launches the setup.exe in the Vista folder and Windows Vista setup starts, just like if you had launched it from DVD.

That's it. 

For the last week and all of this weekend everyone on the Windows Marketplace team has been downloading Windows Vista and Office 2007 from our internal test servers and installing on our computers at home.  I have to say it's been a proud moment for me.  Repeatedly people on the team have remarked, "I was amazed at how smooth the whole process was.  It just worked."  I worked on the Windows Vista setup team for two years before joining Windows Marketplace to (quickly) develop the system for distributing Windows Vista via ESD.  Let me tell you, there is nothing a setup developer likes to hear more than "It just worked."  I hope you enjoy it too.

Windows Vista Countdown Clock

This morning, Jascha (who, sadly, has yet to actually make a public appearance that I can find a link to) sent around a link to a guy who has a funny way of saying that he's looking forward to the Windows Vista release on Windows Marketplace.  I'm excited about the near future too.

But what really caught my eye was the "Countdown Clock" in the top right corner.  Turns out that the gadget came from Donavon West at Live Gadgets.net.  So, I pinged him to see if he would let me host the countdown clock here and he said, "Go right ahead!"

I can tell you that all of us on the Windows Marketplace team are working very hard to the tick of that clock.  We are having a great time and very much looking forward to when it all reads "00:00:00" and you can buy Windows Vista and Office 2007 online.