If you’re planning to upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as it is released, you may encounter some issues with locating Windows drivers that are compatible with your new OS. Many hardware manufacturers have already released or are finishing work on their latest drivers.

Driver Availability May Not Be Windows 7′s Major Issue

In addition, Microsoft is working hard to ensure that a large complement of hardware drivers are available on Day 1 (October 22) to avoid a repeat of driver issues that plagued (and to some extent, still plague) Windows Vista. Microsoft made it known earlier this spring that any manufacturer that wanted to keep its Vista-compatible designation had better be prepared to pony up with working drivers for its hardware by Release Day.

Last week, Dell announced that it was ready to go with drivers for its commercial products. In the weeks leading up to Release Day, expect to hear from other hardware manufacturers who have their driver ducks in a row. Windows 7 also comes with a good slug of generic drivers and drivers that are known to be compatible with Windows 7.

That’s not to say you won’t see driver problems when the new OS is released. To the contrary, you’ll probably see a number of hasty driver releases in the days leading up to (and following) the release of Windows 7. It’s safe to say that the availability of drivers for the new OS is a touchy subject with Microsoft. The non-stop stream of complaints regarding driver availability and driver performance dulled Vista’s initial entrée to the market and eventually guaranteed its ignominy among operating systems.

Microsoft can’t afford to have a second major dud in the OS department. While some users are sticking close to Windows XP, the reality is that XP is tired. Microsoft would like it to be “retired” but users want guarantees that their systems will be stable and that drivers will be available for basic hardware.

While the driver issues were indeed disruptive for Vista, the bigger issue for the enterprise user was Vista’s in ability to work with Active Directory on Server 2003. Server 2008 has rectified that. Microsoft expects Windows 7 and Server 2008 to hit the ground like Starsky and Hutch on October 22, and preliminary reports indicate that might just happen. Windows 7 is much more stable than Windows Vista is and works well in Windows 2008′s compatible server environment. For the home users, the server environment is neither here nor there, but they’ll benefit from improved performance and stability. And the availability of hardware drivers on Release Day.

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Dell Computer announced last week that it is ready for Windows 7′s impending release by making available Windows 7 drivers for its commercial desktop and laptop product lines. The company also says that it will release additional drivers in the next several weeks in anticipation of the commercial release of Windows 7.

Microsoft Gets Its Windows 7 Ducks In A Row

Microsoft announced that it had finished development on the release last month and shipped the final version of the OS to OEMs earlier this month. Volume licensing customers with Software Assurance already have access to Windows 7, and volume licensers without software assurance will get access to the new OS on September 1.

Dell’s driver releases are seen as critical to the success of the Windows 7 launch. OEMs, including Dell, were slow to produce drivers for Windows Vista, which was initially released in January 2007. Dell also helped spearhead the drive to keep Windows XP alive, at least for its commercial customers. Windows diehards will be able to purchase downgrade rights to XP for a short period after Windows 7 is released. Volume Licensing customers can load any version of the operating system, including Windows XP.

Making a good showing in the commercial computing market is one of Microsoft’s goals with the release of Windows 7. Accompanying Windows 7 to the marketplace will be Windows Server 2008. The most compelling feature in the Windows Server 2008 release is its ability to make Windows 7 play nice in the enterprise environment. Windows Vista never quite got along with Windows Server 2003′s Active Directory implementation and many enterprise customers skipped the Vista release because of it.

With Windows XP approaching its eighth birthday, ancient history in computer time, Microsoft is hoping that the Windows Server 2008 revamp will incent enterprise users enough to make the simultaneous switch from its vintage Windows products to something a little fresher.

With Dell loaded into the starting gate, Microsoft is expecting other hardware manufacturers to fall in line when it comes to producing Windows 7-compatible drivers in a timely way. The company is already threatening to pull its Vista-compatible imprimatur from hardware manufacturers that don’t come across with Vista-compatible drivers by October 22.
In all, the Windows 7 beta release has proven itself to be more stable than its predecessors and appears to deliver better performance in most circumstances. Nonetheless, Microsoft isn’t going to risk a dud release and is eliminating as many gotchas as possible prior to October 22.

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If you’re still using Windows XP (you’re not alone; many users are) XP has a built-in tool to help you troubleshoot driver problems. Driver Verifier is part of the OS, so there’s nothing to buy or install. Just type verifier.exe in the Run line and restart the computer. Verifier also has a GUI interface to help you navigate the options.

Verifier Knows A Lot About Drivers, But Will That Help?

Driver Verifier probably isn’t going to be of too much help to you unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool computer nerd. It can help you identify problems, but if you don’t have much experience with what the program is telling you, knowing how to run Verifier won’t solve your driver problems. It may not even help you understand what’s going on.

One of the more useful functions for novice users will be Driver Status. This command will tell you whether a driver is loading or not. A status of Loaded means that a driver has been loaded and was verified as operating according to Hoyle. Unloaded means that the driver isn’t loaded right now, but has been loaded at least once since you restarted. Not Loaded means that the driver load failed or that the system never tried to load the driver. This is a helpful bit of information if you’re trying to troubleshoot a driver problem.

For the most part, Verifier is designed for advanced users, programmers and technicians who have a good grasp of what Verifier is trying to say. For the novice user, what matters most is whether or not the driver works – not why it’s sailing or failing. For these users, the best product is something like Driver Detective. Driver Detective does all of the interpretation work on your drivers, and determines whether or not your drivers are working. It also determines whether you have the correct version of the driver for your hardware and OS. It will even download and install new or updated drivers. As an added benefit, Driver Detective can tell when a driver has gotten corrupted or damaged, and will automatically install a fresh copy.

These are the services that most users will be interested in when it comes to detecting, diagnosing and repairing driver problems. As a driver manager, few products compare to Driver Detective’s easy installation, configuration and operation. It’s also highly reliable, and very affordable so you can trust it to take care of your computer just like a professional would without breaking the bank!

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If your idea of spending quality time on your computer is looking for hardware drivers, or trying to update, repair or reinstall drivers, then knock yourself out. If, on the other hand, you simply want a reliable way to locate driver updates, install drivers for the hardware you have and ensure that your drivers are available and working properly, then try Driver Detective the number one driver manager available for Windows today.

Millions of Users Trust Driver Detective

Driver Detective has been downloaded and installed millions of times by PC users like yourself who don’t want to spend time diagnosing and managing driver problems. Driver Detective installs quickly and painlessly, and starts to work immediately. You can schedule system scans as often as you like to ensure that you have the most reliable and up-to-date drivers available.

Driver problems can cause all kinds of negative performance issues on your computer, including slow startups, slow shutdowns, freezing and crashing. A bad or missing driver means that you won’t be able to access your hardware properly, or that it simply won’t be recognized by your system.

Although the automatic update feature of Windows tries to correct driver problems, it often ends up making problems worse by selecting and installing the wrong driver. You may think that you have the correct driver because you installed the one Windows selected. In reality, you could be wasting hours of time trying other things to get your hardware to work when the solution is simply to use the correct driver.

If you’re like most computer users, you don’t know what the correct driver is or where to find it. That’s where Driver Detective comes in. Driver Detective monitors your system constantly and checks for new drivers regularly. When Driver Detective finds a new driver, it automatically downloads and installs it. You don’t need to worry about having the correct hardware drivers when Driver Detective is on duty. You can also revert to an older driver if the new installation isn’t working. Further, Driver Detective can disable unused drivers to prevent them from causing problems for your system.

Having Driver Detective installed is like having your own personal PC technician right on your desktop. You don’t need to be a computer expert to monitor and manage your own PC. With Driver Detective, you can rest assured that your installed drivers will always be the ones you need for your hardware, and you won’t spend time looking for new driver versions.

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