Help cannot initialize bitcoin gui

[bitcoinnoob101]

I have downloaded and extracted bitcoin but when i run bitcoin-qt the bitcoin wallet symbol comes up but nothing happens i have tried turning ff windows user account notifications run it in windows xp service pack 2 compatibility mode  the system i am running is windows 7 64 bit but when i hover over the bitcoin wallet symbol all that happens is my mouse turns into that symbol that indicates its working or unresponsive some help from someone who knows what this is would be appreciated.

Update: i have used the windows.exe and the installation worked but it is still failing to initialize any ideas?

Update screenshots
http://i41.tinypic.com/35asjua.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/x0nryu.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/nbyejt.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/2urmu7a.jpg

it isint shown here but when i put my mouse over it i get the windows busy cursor
http://i41.tinypic.com/343hjj6.gif

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[senbonzakura]

maybe its downloading the block chain ?

you have to wait till it finishes downloading.

you can also use Instawallet www.instawallet.org online free wallet

[bitcoinnoob101]

hmm it says not responding but it could be that it is working ill try letting it run uninterrupted for a while to see if that works.

[tiker]

Ya, let it run.. I've seen it take like 5 minutes before it does anything on one of my systems.

[P4man]

its very IO intensive on startup. If you have a slow harddisk it will take like forever. And after that, it will take countless forevers before it downloaded and indexed the blockchain. Think several days intially. If you cant wait that long, grab a lite wallet like this one:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum

[bitcoinnoob101]

oh okay if it usually takes days i don't mind i just needed to know if it was normal thanks for clarifying that.

[P4man]

It doesnt take days for the GUI to come up, but it may take that long to get the blockchain up to date. The gui should be there within a few minutes at most I imagine. Try running task manager > resource manager and have a look at disk IO. If its busy, just wait.

[bitcoinnoob101]

My disk i/o is averaging 40 mb/s
http://i42.tinypic.com/1z14lsk.jpg