vista installation issues (5308)

Well decided to take the plunge and test installing on two systems
simultaneously.

In both cases I tried all three currently available betas that are on msdn
(beta1, beta2(5270), febctp(5308). The two systems are a toshiba m200 tablet
(upgraded to 1g memory, faster drive, intel 2200g wireless). The other
system started as an HP m7170n (intel 830 processor, 3g memory, ATI x1300
video card). Both systems were able to handle the first two beta products
successfully.

Both systems had critical problems with 5308. For all of the tests the hard
drives were formatted clean and then loading the target beta. No apps were
installed.

The tablet pc failed by not allowing access to the administrator account,
thus I could not configure wireless networking

The hp system failed by hanging in a loop during load with no messages.

As a general observation user installation feedback messages are abominable,
you need to put out more information as to what is happening at what stages
so we don't get the wrong impression that it has failed.

al