Not believable?!...
Let´s see... Well, I admit I don´t count M$ updates (but I do count Office 2007 SP1), BUT:
1. I keep all Lenovo drivers and apps relevant for my system on a separate HD. Over time I learnt my lessons as to which of them work well for me and which don´t. I´m very conservative regarding these particular pieces of software.
2. My VM is only about 1 GB (or 2 GB if I have some Linux in addition)
3. 15min is way tooo looong for Office 2007 to install
Same goes for the 10 min of installing VMware (hm, on what hardware do you install these two?)
4. I keep the bigger applications as an installer or .iso image on that separate HD, so I don´t get slowed down by CD/DVD (well, the first time this is plenty of work to create all of them, but once done I´m good to go every time I install/reinstall OS) (that actually may well explain why VM installs faster in my case, the only exception I do is Office 2007 which I still install from the CD, it´s not the full Office suite though).
5. Matlab could take loonger, but I don´t need most of its components, so this makes things much faster
6. The really slow ones (to install) in my case are Nero, Adobe Acrobat Pro
7. A bunch of small apps like VLC, winamp, winrar etc that go fast
8. AVG 7.5 antivirus (still keeping it and still updating), requires a reboot.
Nevertheless, I can well imagine that different users have different setups, so doing everything the way I do it could be a real pain and not necessarily faster... So, I don´t doubt in any way the capabilities of imaging. But to go back to the OP´s post, I don´t think that restoring the factory content as work environment (not with the purpose for selling the laptop) is not worth waiting 90 min (well, though I have to admit it has the advantage of being automatic)
Just my 2 cents
Marin
