I am sitting here right now with a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade Edition in my hand. A year after it was released, I’ve finally decided to upgrade to Vista, despite my many reservations and fears.
And I can’t get the box open. I swear to God, for the life of me, I can’t get the box open.
My upgrade DVD is trapped inside some sort of bizarre clear plastic Chinese torture device. It has hinges and latches, and pressing on the latches isn’t doing a damn thing. I can’t pry it open by force, and I’m about to attack this sucker with a screwdriver.
This may be the dumbest packaging I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of dumb packaging. It isn’t a very good harbinger for the contents, which I plan to use this weekend when I have lots of time and patience.
UPDATE: Some six hours after I first opened the shipping container, I finally Googled the phrase “open Windows Vista box” and came across this. I found that the key was to not press on the tabs. Instead, find the seam where the box separates at the top and push it forward. There’s a hinge at the bottom right of the box, and this action swings the inside of the box away from the u-shaped shell.
Stupidest. Packaging. Ever.
Inside, in addition to the DVD: The 39-page “quick” start guide. Thirty-nine pages. Ahem. Once you go above six pages, in my humble opinion, you’ve abandoned the “quick” concept.
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By the way, these are the editions of Windows Vista (that I know of) that are available:
Home basic
Home premium
Business
Ultimate
Home basic upgrade edition
Home premium upgrade edition
Business upgrade edition
Ultimate upgrade edition
Home basic system builders edition
Home premium system builders edition
Business system builders edition
Ultimate system builders edition
Home basic academic edition
Home premium academic edition
Business academic edition
Ultimate academic edition
Home basic upgrade academic edition
Home premium upgrade academic edition
Business upgrade academic edition
Ultimate upgrade academic edition
That’s 20 — twenty — different versions of Vista, and there actually are a variety of additional sub-divisions for the academic product. And Microsoft wonders why there’s been so much resistance in adapting Vista.
