Windows Vista box conundrum
Several weeks ago I received a copy of Vista that my colleague Sol Libes had obtained from a generous Microsoft rep. When I went to open it, I discovered that Microsoft has some new-fangled packaging that had me baffled. Fortunately, I had seen Mary Jo Foley’s piece about how even Microsoft employees were having trouble opening Vista boxes. She wrote:
This is one for all of you readers who’ve had trouble installing Windows Vista. Don’t feel bad. Even some Microsoft developers — who have the Vista team on premise — can’t manage to upgrade to Vista.
A Microsoft developer chronicled his troubles in a blog:
My first issue with Vista was getting the damn thing out of the box. The box is a weirdly shaped plastic thing, and almost impossible to open the first time you see one. After some cursing I discovered a red tag, so I pulled that: no change. After applying physical pressure to the box I began to see the bizarre way it opens, but it would only move a millimeter. I was seriously considering a trip to the garage and to smash the box open with a hammer, when I discovered another transparent sticker that was holding two parts together. With that gone, the box moved a few more millimeters, until I realised the thing opens sideways, and boom: Vista was opened. I’ve installed entire operating systems more quickly and with less stress than opening this box…
It got to the point where Microsoft felt it should put up a tutorial on how to open a Vista box. So if you buy a copy of Vista and can’t get the box open, your first move in learning how to use Vista is to go over to the tutorial and get the instructions for opening the box that contains Vista.