How painful is the WHQL certification process?

Can you give an estimate of how painful the WHQL (Windows Logo for Hardware) certification process is? I see there is a 43 page step by step guide where the first step is installing Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.

About how long does it will take to go through the whole preparation process before making a submission? And then how long does it take to get back a result?

(My understanding is that I can avoid the installatio开发者_开发百科n warning for post-XP operations by just signing, but that I need to go through WHQL to avoid that on XP. Please correct me if this is not true.)

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Yes need to go through the WHQL to avoid install warning. It is painful and need to fix any platform related errors.