There's a problem with Windows Vista in that it takes more time to calculate and do the gas gauge for a file copy than it takes to copy the file. I'm sure Microsoft will find and fix this problem but this raises a bigger issue. Why do we need gas gauges at all?
Honestly, it's become a standard - but why? I would be perfectly happy just to see "100 of 200 transferred" rather than go through all that CPU machination to be able to see a bar slowly fill up. I can remember a time when installing software that the gas gauge was actually a torture device because the first 20 blocks or so would breeze by and then the last 3 would take forever.
I remember the first time I saw the Apple OS X gauge appearing to be filling up with water and I thought "how cool" but really wouldn't it be better to have the machine cycles back?
Here's a simple idea. If you are going to steal machine cycles from the process to keep the user occupied - instead of just updating a pointless gas gauge - why not pull items from the Outlook tasks list and flash them on the screen? That way while the monkey is waiting to start pressing the lever again, he could at least be getting something of value.
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