InfoWorld Home / Developer World / Strategic Developer / Windows 7 RTM: What about drivers?
July 06, 2009

Windows 7 RTM: What about drivers?

Reports say that Windows 7 will release to manufacturing on July 13. Now the hard part begins

| Print | 7 comments|
540 Recommendations

Our sister publication Computerworld reports that Windows 7 will head to RTM on July 13. I don't know whether to be excited or scared.

Why would I be scared? I'm running the Windows 7 RC on two machines: one 64-bit desktop and one 32-bit laptop. It runs fairly well on both, better than Vista in many ways, but with one major exception: device drivers.

[ See how Windows 7 performs in InfoWorld's benchmarks. | Take a video tour of Window 7. | Download InfoWorld's Windows 7 Quick Guide PDF. ]

The desktop can't scan from my HP networked all-in-one printer, although it can print. The Compaq laptop periodically goes black and reports that the screen driver stopped, then recovered.

This isn't how a finished operating system acts. It is how Vista acted when it was released. That doesn't make me hopeful.

Please surprise me, Microsoft and HP, and release working Windows 7 device drivers for all devices that are supported by Windows Vista. Make it a pleasant surprise, and do that soon.

Related Content...

White Paper

D2D Virtual Tape Library Replication Primer

This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.

Download now »

White Paper

An Alternative to Virtualization for Datacenter Cost Savings

Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.

Download now »

White Paper

Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network

The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.

Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation

Download now »

White Paper

Bringing the Edge to the Data Center

Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.

Download now »
7 of 7 comments
Sign In or Register to comment
Astrochimp 7-Jul-09 10:41am
1 reply
Not true, although Microsoft-haters would dearly love it to be so. I'm running Windows 7 RC on a Toshiba laptop, and I just plugged the USB cable from my HP PSC 2170 all-in-one (printer/scanner) into my laptop for the first time. I initiated a scan from my laptop, and it came through in beautiful color. Drivers for Windows 7 use the same as existing drivers for Vista.
Martin Heller 7-Jul-09 11:13am
You were lucky. The all-in-one to which I refer in this posting is the L7590. The 64-bit Vista drivers refuse to install on 64-bit Windows 7.
ricegf 7-Jul-09 11:39am
One success story doesn't prove no problems exist, Astrochimp - otherwise, I could safely claim that Linux has no problems with drivers, either. :-) However, I though Microsoft had planned a hands-off approach to the driver API, so that all Vista drivers would work unmodified on 7. Was that plan dropped? If so, what a horribly bad idea after the Vista fiasco. Say it ain't so, Joe... I mean, Martin!
samic 7-Jul-09 12:02pm
You should blame that to HP. My bet is the installer that won't run rather than the driver that doesn't work. HP just loves to hardcode OS requirement into the installers. There are few ways you can try. My HP notebook actually require a combination of these method to get all my device working: 1) set the compatibility mode for the installer to Vista. (right click, "Compatibility", set it to "Vista" 2) If that fail, run the installer anyway but don't close the error dialog and then grab the driver files in %TEMP%. Once you get the driver files you can now install the driver in Device Manager. 3) Use Orca to transform the installation like Rafael: http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/01/10/songsmith-doesnt-install-on-wind... But don't hold your breathe - sometime these AIO printer would pack another installer inside an installer... in that case it would be like playing a russian nested doll. There really has no reason why Vista driver doesn't work with Win7. The driver model of Win7 is as same as Vista. If you want to find somewhere to vent though, I suggest you vent to hardware vendors. After all, Vista had betas/RC for over a year and they was still not ready.
willfor 7-Jul-09 4:48pm
The HP Vista SW installer will run with Win 7's Vista Compat mode. I would not recommend installing any device's driver files via Device Manager if there is a installer offered from the HW vendor. The HP installer once running in compat mode on Win 7 should behave as if it was installing on Vista. I guess this type of issue is what comes with using a pre-release version of any SW or operating system. I really think HP will end up releasing Win 7 SW packages for most of their newer devices on hp.com when the final Win 7 OS is available. Actually, I am looking forward to the release of Win 7 simply because of the stability and performance gains that I have seen with just running a pre released version of Win 7 on my daily used HP Elitebook. Enjoy.
wGrahamT 8-Jul-09 3:44am
Compatibility Mode is built into all versions of Windows 7. A very basic description is that it is intended to be a temporary measure that uses shims to overlay a Windows 7 API with libraries from a previous version of Windows. This can allow the software/driver to operate as if it was installed on that previous version of Windows. Note that this is not the same as XP Mode... XP Mode is a special version of Windows XP that is installed in a special version of Windows Virtual Machine that allows you to install a Windows XP software program or hardware device directly into Windows XP. This XP Mode runs in the background and allows a Windows 7 user to use the software or hardware device from within Windows 7, just as if it were installed on Windows 7. There's a link to a screenshot on this page http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprohardware/thread/80c... ... From which it would appear that any driver environment all the way through from Windows 95 to Vista is supported ... I would guess that that means it will install and run, the question is will it actually work? Although you can see that there is an intention from Microsoft that it should, your mileage may vary. For example, at the moment I’m trying to get drivers to enable functionality on my old Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC, and the SD Host driver from Windows XP installed and the device now appears in Device Manager... but I can’t yet work out how to install the SD Memory Card driver, because it depends on hardware detection for installation and despite the SD Host driver (XP version) being installed, the Device Manager is not showing the SD Memory card as present in the hardware tree. However, XP drivers for the sound card and the Video card were installed and are working. One other note about Compatibility is that the reason for the internal name for Windows 7 being “Windows version 6.1” is so that Vista compatible installers that were written to check for the version number will still see version 6 as the major release number.
LutherM 10-Jul-09 1:13pm
In my humble opinion, the operating system cannot be fully evaluated until the drivers and hardware are tested while using the OS. It seems a bit riduculous to state an OS is running well, when it has not been fully evaluated under working conditions. Leaving an OS running without placing it under any type of stress using hardware and software seems to be the logical way to test a new OS and to avoid the driver calamities witnessed in prior years. I am passing on Windows 7. There is not enough improvement over XP and Vista to justify the price of upgrading. The product is overpriced. The current discount program provides a limited discount to a few unlucky persons who are paying to be testers.I was fooled once with Vista. I will not be fooled by Windows 7.

Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts

Subscribe to the Today's Headlines: First Look Newsletter

Find out what will be news for the day, with our first-thing-in-the-morning briefing.

©1994-2009 Infoworld, Inc.