My preference is to have an option to display what the program is doing, sampled frequently, so when the program is bogged down with small files, waiting for the network, performing file integrity checks, etc, I can be sure the program is actually progressing. This works well for installation programs. For video rendering, the rolling average frame conversion rate does well.<br><br>Some programs put up progress bars that are completely disconnected from actual progress, instead just showing that the program is able to update the display. In some casa, this is sufficient.