Why are progress bars lying to you? When
you copy files, your system knows how
many files there are and how much data
you're moving, so they should be
accurate, shouldn't they? If a process
or an update starts in the background,
that can cause your transfer speed to
drop dramatically, and a progress bar
has no way to predict that. Even with
nothing going on in the background, you
can still run into trouble when you're
copying a combination of large files and
teeny-weeny files. Program installs tend
to be a little bit better, but they're
still flawed because many installers run
on a checklist. In reality, each step
can take a different amount of time.
Decompressing a massive game file, for
instance, takes way longer than changing
a couple of registry entries, but many
installers treat both as equal progress.
As it turns out, their main purpose is
to reduce your anxiety, giving you
visual feedback that your system [music]
hasn't crashed.