Many of us have rituals which we perform after buying a video game. When I buy an Xbox 360 game, it's all about picking at the plastic wrap feverishly while also avoiding scuff damage to the DVD case (am I the only one who struggles with this?), putting in the disc, finding the "sweet spot" on my couch (it's basically an indentation that looks like The Invisible Man is sitting on it), and then playing the game to my heart's content. With a PC game it's a radically different process: unwrap the game, put in the disc, start clicking ok, figure out where to install it, make sure my DirectX version cuts the mustard, start watching the install progress, flip through the manual a bit, whip up a bologna sandwich, check on progress, start eating bologna sandwich, play the game - you get the picture. With Halo 2 for Windows Vista, you'll put the disc in, click play, and then you… start playing. Yeah, I couldn't figure out when to make my bologna sandwich, either.

Does Tray & Play impact the performance of the game?
Our testing shows that it does not! However, if you're paranoid about this, you can of course choose to fully install the game before playing. There are a few fringe performance cases where the default is dynamically changed to fully install. For example, if DMA is disabled on your DVD drive.

How long does it typically take to get into the game the first time (I have patience issues)?
About two minutes. Less if you have a really powerful machine.
Note: If your machine is slower (or you're converting Season 1 of Alf to WMV for your Zune, for example), it may take longer.