History Main / ExactProgressBar

** There is a radio station named [[NamesTheSame Lite 96]] whose site has this when ''loading'' the radio stream.

* Apparently not even HigherTechSpecies are immune: at one point in ''Series/StargateSG1'', an Asgard progress bar is shown at around 75% for a few minutes, then abruptly increases to 100% in a couple of seconds.

-->-- '''Cypher''' in Website/CollegeHumor's "Film/TheMatrix Runs on [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows XP]]"

* ''Webcomic/UserFriendly'': [[http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/99mar/19990318.html The Microsoft Minute]].

* You expected the bar to show you how ''long'' a process is going to take? Sorry, they tend to just show the amount of operations the program is going to perform. With no consideration of the order or complexity of those operations. Or how suited your computer is to performing any of them. It's a lot like watching someone build a Lego model: You can see the pieces adding up, and the picture tells you how it's going to look when it's finished, but those things do not give an accurate indication of the time involved.
** As a general rule, it's recommended to take these progress bars with the warning ''for entertainment purposes only.''
* Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" has a startup progress bar that moves at a constant rate, [[http://daringfireball.net/misc/2005/04/tiger_details#waitingforloginwindow using information about the duration of the previous system boot to determine how quickly it should move]]. Though technically it isn't a progress bar at all since it doesn't indicate the progress of the current operation, but rather how long it took last time.
** 10.5 "Leopard" just tossed out this progress bar entirely, going straight from the gray Apple logo initially visible on boot to (after a couple of seconds) the login window.
* Some [=ATMs=] in Germany ("Postbank") show progress bars which move at a constant rate... And then, when they're full, start from the beginning. What's the purpose of a progress bar, when it doesn't give you any information at all?
** It does show that the system hasn't crashed. Without additional status text, though, it doesn't show the difference between "meaningful progress" and "stuck in an infinite loop".

* In the film ''Film/DOADeadOrAlive '', the BigBad is uploading the plans for his invention to a bunch of international buyers. Naturally, the progress bar is quickly filling up, despite the fact that these buyers are all, presumably, located in different locations. When Wetherby manages to stop the upload, the bar ''reverses'' and quickly goes back to 0. Just to be more ridiculous, Wetherby calls in the government by going to CIA.GOV on an internet browser and... not doing much else. Apparently, that's enough to call in the cavalry, and the BigBad is immediately warned by a large blinking message on his screen "CIA Notified".
* Any movie or TV show where an illicit financial transaction is carried out. Instead of a real banking website, which takes just as long to process each money transfer, the computer will show a progress bar - as if the computer is actually moving individual banknotes and counting them as it does so...
* ''Film/TheWizardOfLies'': When Frank sees the FBI in the building he races back to the 17th floor and attempts to delete incriminating material (regarding Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme) from his computer. The "Empty the recycle bin" icon is still showing bits of data being deleted, with a slowly progressing bar, when an FBI agent tells Frank to step away from his computer.

* Played straight in ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'', when the heroes are developing a [[TransformationTrinket Gashat]] that they hope will let them defeat the seemingly immortal [[TheUndead Genm]]. Hiiro goes out to stall for time while Taiga guards the computer downloading the anti-virus program and waits on the progress bar.

* In ''VideoGame/ProgressQuest'', each and every progress bar moves straight from 0% to 100%. However, they're not actually representing progress, they are just fixed video effects.

* ProductPlacement in ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' went overboard when the commercial videos introduced in a post-release update played during the loading screen...and the loading bar would ''stop'' near the end as the video finished, whereas the bar had been perfectly accurate beforehand. The ads were since removed because players noticed this detail and felt anger about it. The game has was later updated to support new advertisements.
* The first ''VideoGame/{{WarioWare}}'' had menus modeled on a typical computer interface (the story being that Wario was programming the games, and you were working as a tester). When unlocking things, a progress bar would appear, and slow down and speed up while the new objects "loaded". The one for the title screen (if you don't skip the intro) moved at a constant rate, though.
* Every single program used in ''VideoGame/{{Uplink}}'' does this, though just how fast they reach completion depends on the processor speed in your Gateway computer. The only indication of their processes stopping before completion is if the bar fills up and then reads, "Failed".
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}''. Most, if not all of the computer terminals in Pathos-II have realistic lag when executing or loading programs. [[spoiler: This almost prevents Simon Jarret's mind from being copied onto the ARK at the end.]]
--> '''Simon:''' I thought you guys would have better bandwidth in the future!

* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'': The InUniverse loading bar for the Claptrap simulation increases at a constant rate and finishes on time.
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/LoadingScreenSimulator''. The time left section can't decide whether there's only a few seconds left or several years.

* Parodied in [[http://xkcd.com/612/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''.

See also BeepingComputers, ExactTimeToFailure and MagicCountdown.

** In another episode, when Timmy tries going online, the bar goes from 2%, to 2 1/2%, to 0%.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{TheFairlyOddParents''

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Fairly OddParents}}'' episode "Information Stupor Highway". While Mr. Crocker is uploading a file with a [[TechnologyMarchesOn 1-month-old computer]], the progress bar actually drops to -1%, among other tortures.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Payday2}}'', every single tool you have has one. Which includes: hacking interfaces for voting machines, computers you let [[MissionControl Bain]] access, and, inexplicably, the drills you use to open doors and safes.

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* in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Willow has to try doing research without magic after her brush with "addiction". When a progress bar stops about halfway, she reaches her hand up to speed it along with magic, but then it suddenly finishes loading.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', although the fake nose machine that also translates alien documents doesn't have a progress bar, it is stated that the exact process of translating a document could take anywhere from a few moments to a million years. The only indication of progress is the machine dinging. Two dings means it's done. Not like that, slightly more rapid.

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* Averted in ''Manga/LuckyStar'', where Konata is increasingly annoyed by the realistically fluctuating progress bar on her PC.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Payday2}}'', every single tool you have has one. Which includes: hacking interfaces for voting machines, computers you let [[MissionControl Bain]] access, and, inexplicably, the drills you use to open doors and safes. [[DownplayedTrope drills will jam three times though, and will have to be restarted, and any timer can be stopped by police action (including drills), needing to be restarted, which means the projected time may be slightly lower, or completely out of whack, depending on police action and player reactions, but aside from police action and the three jams, it's accurate to the second.]]

* In ''StarHarborNights'', when an alien machine HiveMind is trying to infiltrate a villainess's ElaborateUndergroundBase full of {{Phlebotinum}} waiting to be assimilated, the download progress bar keeps resetting and jumping around randomly, undermining her attempts to play EnemyOfMyEnemy with the government.

* ProductPlacement in ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' went overboard when the commercial videos introduced in a post-release update played during the loading screen...and the loading bar would ''stop'' near the end as the video finished, whereas the bar had been perfectly accurate beforehand. The ads were since removed because players noticed this detail and [[InternetBackdraft felt anger about it.]] The game has was later updated to support new advertisements.

** This has carried over into Windows Vista and 7, and there is a reason behind why the estimates fluctuate. The estimated time remaining is based on the size of the file currently being copied, and assumes that all remaining files are the same size, meaning it is constantly changing.[[labelnote:Example]]If one is copying one hundred 1KB .txt files, but also have an uncompressed three hour movie in between, the estimated time remaining will change from a few seconds to several hours when it starts copying the movie, and then back to a few seconds when it gets back to the .txt files.[[/labelnote]]

** Played straight in later versions of Windows with a much improved file copy dialog.

* Windows 8 now gives you a "Show Details" button for some operations, which not only shows what jobs are happening, it also turns the bar into a curve graph that tells you how quickly it'll be moving under its jobs.

** Many applications and operating systems have decided to forego the progress bar entirely for a bar that simply fills or scrolls at a constant rate. They may also slowly fade in from one side, then fade out on the other.

* Scan progress in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' games is always smooth, most likely because the scan data [[FakeLongevity doesn't actually take quite that long]] to load. and maybe because its a fixed length animation that will always take ''that long to run''.

* Scan progress in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' games is always smooth, most likely because the scan data [[FakeLongevity doesn't actually take quite that long]] to load. and maybe because its a fixed length animation that will always take ''that long to run''.

* When doing something which might take a long time, but where the exact amount of time to complete is unknown, a fake progress bar is often used to show that something is happening. Such progress bars often start out fast at the beginning, but will keep slowing down towards the end; alternatively, they may simply be a prescripted animation and loop back to zero. Many modern installers have the progress bar filled with a perpetually moving fade rather than any kind of indicative marker, for this very purpose.
** In the programming industry, these fake bars are often nicknamed 'pacifiers'. Stick one in the face of an end user, and they'll be quiet for as long as you need.

* The anti-piracy "You wouldn't steal a car" advert on many DVDs shows a girl downloading a movie. The progress bar is unrealistic, not just because it's completely smooth - but because it only takes about 20 seconds to complete. This may actually be enough to encourage people to use questionable download sites...