still doesn't explain the windows install progress bar that shoots from 0 to 99% and then holds at 99%  for magnitudes longer than the time taken to get there.  all this bar did was make users think something had indeed gone wrong.   <br><br>i don't think anyone is asking for a perfectly smooth progress bar,   we are just tired of progress bars that purposely deceptive, or negligently inaccurate.   <br><br>your entire bit, nearly a minute long, on different tasks,taking different times on different hardware misses the point.... we all know download speeds vary based on our connection, the server, and if we are useing part of our bandwidth on somthing else(among other things).... and that a super computer has more processing power than an outdated laptop....    and that these tasks are basicly  independent of each other.....  thus why these are seperate progress bars in the vast amount of scenarios(and should be in the rest).     and the last section you listed seems like your just grasping at straws,  while it is dependent on the OS,  so is the version of the program being installed which already had to be known before getting to this step completing removing your stated variable.