The installation of device drivers during the initial start-up is completely automated: all recognized devices are installed without user interaction, and an Assistant window for other devices surfaces only after a second round of device enumeration occurs. This makes sense, as it permits even USB input devices such as keyboards and mice to be recognized immediately. Those who've booted from a system disk on a new motherboard already know about this problem - namely, that Windows XP requires numerous scans and hardware resets until it completely recognizes all USB devices and permits input from a USB keyboard. This problem is gone in Windows Vista. Given the incredibly widespread use of USB, this improvement is long overdue.

Driver installation: this small symbol indicates that system drivers are being installed.

For Windows XP, problems can occur when devices are recognized after system start, but no drivers for those devices are ready for use.

Vista issues a report following the installation of multiple drivers.

Some things never go away: even for Windows Vista, installing some new system components still requires a reboot.