I've been using TurboTax for years, and just happen to pick my 2011 Basic up the other day. Installed it this afternoon.
Having been a programmer in several languages, along with several platforms - I'm constantly amazed at the "install" of TT. On my lowly 1Ghz laptop, the install took 15 mins..... 2:16pm -> 2:34pm
I can almost install an entire operating system in that time !
It's mindboggling that Intuit keeps producing slower and slower software. Having come from the assembler level, up thru the various procedural langs, it must be getting really hard to create fast code - while catering to the dumbness of programming in high level langs -
"ps56k" wrote in news:jebae8$sqn$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Yhe install process really doesn't have anything to do with the code itself (unless the code supples its own DLL's and doesn't use operating system API's). The install process is the installation package the application distributor cjooses.
Anyway, who cares how long it takes to install - you should have to do it only once a year for Turbotax. Find something real to complain about.
The OP stated that they were a programmer. As a fellow programmer I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder how installation of a single program can chew up 15 minutes of time on today's blazingly-fast machines [The OP's "lowly GHz laptop" is 1000 times faster than the MHz UNIX PC I used most of my career. I suppose it would take 10.4 *days* to install TT on that machine!].
And although installation and execution of a program aren't directly related, a sluggish installation may be a warning that execution may also be sluggish or even faulty. The issue may be with either TurboTax or with the user's machine.
Just for fun I installed TurboTax on my Dell desktop, which has an Intel duo core 2.4GHz processor. It took about 4 minutes to install and about another
4 minutes to apply available updates. On several occasions one of my CPUs was "eaten alive" (100% utilized) by a process called mscorsvw.exe. I think that's where all the installation time is going.
I know virtually nothing about mscorsvw.exe, but a little research indicates that it does compilation or assembly of code associated with the Microsoft .NET framework. TurboTax apparently uses .NET facilities and this apparently requires the upgrade or (re)installation of a huge support structure. It may even require compilation and building of parts of the TT program rather than just copying a pre-built .exe file to your machine [just guessing here - I'm not a Windows programmer].
So nothing is seriously wrong, and Intuit and Microsoft share blame for the slow TurboTax installation time and the "bloatware." I'd be more concerned about having the .NET framework chewing up disc space than the installation time, especially if you're low on available disc space. But you need .NET facilities if any application you install uses them.
That's the story as I see it. Pretty useless information for almost everyone, but some inquiring minds want to know :-)
The OP stated that they were a programmer. As a fellow programmer I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder how installation of a single program can chew up 15 minutes of time on today's blazingly-fast machines [The OP's "lowly 1Ghz laptop" is 1000 times faster than the 1Mhz UNIX PC I used most of my career. I suppose it would take 10.4 *days* to install TT on that machine!].
And although installation and execution of a program aren't directly related, a sluggish installation may be a warning that execution may also be sluggish or even faulty. The issue may be with either TurboTax or with the user's machine.
Just for fun I installed TurboTax on my Dell desktop, which has an Intel duo core 2.4Ghz processor. It took about 4 minutes to install and about another
4 minutes to apply available updates. On several occasions one of my CPUs was "eaten alive" (100% utilized) by a process called mscorsvw.exe. I think that's where all the installation time is going.
I know virtually nothing about mscorsvw.exe, but a little research indicates that it does compilation or assembly of code associated with the Microsoft .NET framework. TurboTax apparently uses .NET facilities and this apparently requires the upgrade or (re)installation of a huge support structure. It may even require compilation and building of parts of the TT program rather than just copying a pre-built .exe file to your machine [just guessing here - I'm not a Windows programmer].
So nothing is seriously wrong, and Intuit and Microsoft share blame for the slow TurboTax installation time and the "bloatware." I'd be more concerned about having the .NET framework chewing up disc space than the installation time, especially if you're low on available disc space. But you need .NET facilities anyway if *any* application you install uses them.
That's the story as I see it. Pretty useless information for almost everyone, but some inquiring minds want to know :-)
It greatly depends on your computer and how fast it is, but what you describe has not been my experience. Again, I'm talking about previous years, since I've hardly done anything with 2011 yet, but I've had no such problems at all.
And by the way, if it matters, although I'm now retired, I too was a programmer (and manager of programmers) for many years on several different languages and platforms.
Sorry to revive an old thread but I just got the new TT yesterday and installation took about the same amount of time as prior versions.
There is some time involved as TT looks for, downloads and installs all updates during the install process and there were quite a few so naturally it will require more time than a program that doen't update itself during the installation. If you watch during the install you'll see what's going on and why it's taking some time.
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