New Gartner Report Explains Cost Drivers For Windows 7 Migration

Report Examines Migration Scenarios

Microsoft has already declared that it will pull the plug on Windows XP in 2014, at which the OS will be considered dead. For companies that have a five-year desktop life cycle, that means the clock is ticking now. Microsoft has already dropped support for XP SP2 and Windows 2000, so those users are already on a precarious limb.
For XP users who are considering an upgrade path, Gartner says that the cost of migrating software only can be upwards of $2,000 per machine. This includes the cost of any new components and the staff time it will take to upgrade the computer. The balance here is that while upgrading will get a computer to Windows 7, the hardware itself may need to be replaced in 2-3 years, increasing the overall cost of migrating.

For those hoping that the “forklift replacement” approach – where user machines are simply retired and replaced with one that’s already running Windows 7 – will be better, Gartner estimates that the cost of this route could be as much as $2,000 per machine, which mostly represents the cost of new hardware and the staff time needed to prep the new computers.

For those hoping to take the virtualization route, Gartner says “not so fast!” The organization cautions that while virtualization does save money on hardware, virtualization savings may be fully consumed by improvements needed for virtualization support at the desktop, and by the network and data center.

Regardless of how an upgrade will take place, the migration to Microsoft Windows 7 is likely to put an expensive bite on corporate IT budgets in the coming years. Conservatively, Gartner recommends increasing IT budgets by 20% to offset the increased migration costs until the move to Windows 7 is complete. In the worst case, the organization says a 60% bump in the IT budget may be more in line with what it will take to meet the 2014 drop-dead date for XP. Corporations that have migrated at least in part to Windows Vista may experience lower costs because they’re less likely to encounter hardware expenses associated with the move to Windows 7.

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Who Has Time To Manage Windows Drivers?

Manufacturers Don’t Always Come Through

Hardware manufacturers are ultimately responsible for providing hardware drivers, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get much satisfaction from them. Manufacturers are notorious for dropping support for old (and not-so-old) devices, simply by not issuing new drivers for their existing hardware.

It’s frustrating for the user, but this is the manufacturers’ way of prodding users to buy newer hardware, even when the old hardware is working just fine. Windows 7 users may find themselves in a particular bind. They’ve upgraded their OS based on the positive reports from other users, only to discover that their hardware has been deemed “obsolete” by the manufacturer. Likewise, a manufacturer may never have issued a Vista driver based on the users’ “strong preferences for Windows XP.” The unavailability of a Vista driver might just be the best predictor of whether or not your device ends up on the long, slippery slope to oblivion. If a manufacturer hasn’t made a Vista driver, there’s a great chance that you won’t be seeing a Windows 7 driver, either.

You may still be able to find Windows drivers that will talk to your hardware, but the real value of having the right driver is that all of the device’s “built-in functions” will work. Without the correct driver, the device may have limited operating capabilities, or may not work at all.

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 7 and you can’t find a driver for your device inside the OS, the first place to check is with the device manufacturer. Some manufacturers have already identified the devices they support (or plan to support), so verify that your device is on the supported list.

If your device isn’t on the supported list for Windows 7, check the vendor’s site to see if they’ve issued a device driver for Vista. The Vista OS is remarkably compatible with Windows 7 in many areas, including hardware drivers. A Vista driver may work just fine with your Window 7 installation. Failing that, there is a possibility that a Windows XP driver will work. (You’ll need to watch out for 32-bit v 64-bit versions.) The XP driver is far less likely to be a perfect fit, though.

You can always do what I do, which is rely on Driver Detective to locate, download, install and manage drivers. It saves me a great deal of time, which makes Driver Detective worth its weight in gold.

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Latest Hardware Drivers For Catalyst 10.4 May Fix Issues With XP, Vista, Windows 7

Downloading Drivers Can Be A Hassle

Some users, notably gamers, reported problems with the company’s previous driver releases. Some issues included extended wait times and display glitches that caused the computer’s mouse to appear larger than normal on the screen. Users also reported problems with Adobe Flash Player and the driver’s support center. ATI made a portion of the new release available for download in April for users of the Radeon HD 5000 video card. The latest release covers the Radeon HD 2000, Radeon HD 3000 and Radeon HD 4000 series video cards. ATI had released the Catalyst 10.3 drivers in March.

Downloading the new drivers should improve performance on some specific games, most notably Bad Company 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, Napoleon Total War and Shattered Horizon. Users can download the new drivers by visiting the ATI Web site.

Downloading and replacing drivers can be time consuming. For users who simply want to use their computers without spending a lot of time on maintenance, I recommend Driver Detective. Driver Detective is a driver management program that monitors the hardware drivers your computer has installed. On schedule, Driver Detective checks for new or updated drivers and if a new driver is located, Driver Detective downloads the new driver and installs it while maintaining a backup of the old driver.

Users never have to worry about their drivers being out of date. Driver Detective knows when new drivers are available and can also detect when an existing driver has gone bad or is missing. Driver Detective will download a fresh copy of the correct driver for your computer system and you’re good to go. It’s a great way to avoid problems that might otherwise be allowed to sneak up on your computer. Regular driver maintenance doesn’t get ignored and you avoid the hassles and headaches that old, bad, missing or incorrect drivers can cause.

Unlike Windows, Driver Detective doesn’t download the wrong driver and works hard to ensure that your computer always has fresh, functional copies of all of the hardware drivers you need to make your system run right.

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Waiting For Printer Drivers For Windows 7? Keep Waiting…

So Many Printers, So Little Time

Essentially, printer manufacturers may paint themselves into a corner when it comes to hardware drivers for their product lines. Many printers have a number of model variations. For example, one printer may be designed to plug directly into a computer via the USB port, while another may be designed to plug into an Ethernet network. Although the printers are operationally very similar, the printers may require different drivers.

Multi-function devices (e.g., printer/scanner/copier/fax machines) fall into this category, too. These devices may require separate drivers (or sub-drivers) for each function, and getting all of the ducks in a row might be a very challenging operation. Still other printers are designed to work with PostScript, a printer description language made by Adobe, while other printers use a different description language.

Herein lies the challenge: printing has changed a lot over time but old printers soldier on. Printers have a mechanical life that may exceed the average life expectancy of a computer two or three times over. This means that a user may only replace a printer once every 10-15 years, while a computer may get replaced every three or four years. A printer may be mechanically sound but the manufacturer is much less pressured to create drivers for a 10-year-old printer than it is to create drivers for a printer that is currently on the store shelves.

Even printers that are just a few years old could wait indefinitely for driver rehab, if the manufacturer gets bogged down in testing the new driver for incompatibilities with a seemingly endless variety of other hardware and software combinations. Many printer manufacturers throw up their corporate hands and shuffle relatively new printers off to the “unsupported hardware” list.

Ultimately, the manufacturer is responsible for writing a compatible driver for each legacy piece of hardware they’ve built. In most cases, the manufacturer is the only one with enough knowledge about the device to concoct a stable, working driver.

Some manufacturers have modified their approach to writing drivers by attempting to write drivers generically enough to meet the needs of many of their models simultaneously. In other words, they attempt to write a “universal driver” for their models. This approach has some limited success but a universal driver can often shut out the specialty functions that may have made the printer attractive to the buyer in the first place.

If you’re still waiting for your driver update, the best approach is to contact the manufacturer to see if they have an estimate of when a driver will be available. Persistence never hurts, but ultimately, the task of driver creation is left to the device manufacturer.
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Finding Drivers For Older Hardware

Some Windows 7 Users May Be In Luck

For older hardware, finding the correct driver can be difficult. Many manufacturers have elected not to make drivers for Windows 7. That may not automatically mean that you’re out of luck if you’ve already upgraded your operating system to Windows 7.

There are significant similarities between Windows 7 and Windows Vista. If you can’t find a driver that was released for Windows 7, check to see if the manufacturer made a driver for Windows Vista. This doesn’t work in all cases, but often the Vista driver is sufficient for a Windows 7 installation. Be sure to pay attention to the 32-bit v. 64-bit designations. A driver that was designed to work with a 64-bit OS won’t make much headway with a 32-bit system, so don’t waste your time asking your 32-bit OS installation to figure out a 64-bit driver.

You may also find that the manufacturer has created a driver for a newer, similar product in its line. The newer driver may work with your older hardware, so it’s worth a shot if the alternative is getting rid of your older hardware.

Check the manufacturer’s Web site or technical support system to see if they recommend a solution for your problem. Hardware manufacturers aren’t notorious for being sympathetic to users of older hardware, unless the hardware is a specialty item. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a lot of help from the manufacturer on this issue.

I always recommend that users load a driver management software package like Driver Detective. Driver Detective makes the process of locating, downloading, installing and backing up drivers much, much easier. Driver Detective will check for new drivers each time your computer connects to the Internet. You won’t have to go out looking for any drivers ever again. Simply let Driver Detective do the searching for you. You can also revert your system to an earlier configuration if you don’t like the way a driver performs. You’ll save yourself time in the long run and you can be sure that you’ll always have the most up-to-date drivers available.

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What's In A Windows Driver?

Selecting The Correct Driver

In some respects, Apple enjoys a reputation for “trouble-free” computing because it maintains strict control over how hardware (especially third-party hardware) interfaces with the company’s computers. Apple has taken the same approach with software, and the result is a hardware-and-software combination that’s tightly integrated and appears to suffer from fewer problems than its PC counterparts do.

Microsoft has taken a different approach, relying on third-party hardware manufacturers to create as many compatible hardware variations as the market will bear. The result for the consumer is a lower hardware cost, but Microsoft doesn’t exercise the same tight control over the user’s experience that Apple does. PCs running Windows also have a reputation for being difficult to work with.

The inability of some PC hardware to operate compatibly with other PC hardware has fouled up more than one user’s experience and while Microsoft shoulders much of the blame from the consumer’s perspective, the real culprits are more likely to be the hardware manufacturers and the drivers they author. Many hardware manufacturers take their own approach to writing drivers and don’t place a high regard on how their drivers might interoperate with other hardware attached to a user’s computer.

Hardware manufacturers are often slow to come out with compatible drivers and driver updates, which only complicates the user’s overall experience. Saddled on top of this is Microsoft’s somewhat clunky approach to obtaining driver updates. Driver updating at one point was a strictly manual process. Over time, Microsoft has incorporated automatic driver updates into its OS, but some users don’t have this feature configured properly so driver updates are missed, and Microsoft sometimes chooses and/or installs the wrong driver, complicating matters even more. The upshot is that even though Microsoft has automated the process of driver updates, many users are still fearful of the auto-update function due to poor past experiences.

I recommend a driver management program like Driver Detective for reliable, trustworthy driver management. Driver Detective locates, downloads and installs the correct driver and maintains a local backup of the driver. If an installed driver becomes corrupted, damaged or somehow gets deleted or overwritten, Driver Detective can re-install the correct driver instantly, helping the user avoid problems.

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Some Nvidia Drivers Causing PCs To Overheat

Driver Maintenance Is Critical

Maintaining drivers for Windows is a critical function and the Nvidia problem illustrates how important it can be for users to keep their driver packages up-to-date. In this particular case, an overheating condition can cause damage to other system components. Some Nvidia users reported difficulty with their automatic fan speed controls. Other users reported that Windows games would hang on computers where the faulty driver update had been applied.

With a driver management software package like Driver Detective, there is no long arc to figure out that you have a driver problem, and no delay in applying the updated driver. Driver Detective searches out new drivers automatically and downloads and installs updates as they are released from the manufacturer. Driver Detective can help you avoid critical problems with your hardware and operating system software.

The alternative to using driver management software isn’t pretty. For each hardware item installed into or attached externally to your computer, you’ll need to seek driver updates manually. This means that you’ll need to go to each manufacturer’s Web site and seek out new drivers, or ask Windows to check for updates. When an update is found, you’ll need to download and install the driver update manually. This kind of maintenance can waste a lot of time, and it isn’t foolproof.

You can also set up Windows to download and install drivers as “critical updates.” Unfortunately, this method isn’t foolproof either, as Windows sometimes selects the incorrect driver, or fails to identify important driver updates. That doesn’t happen with Driver Detective. Driver Detective locates, downloads and installs the correct driver for your computer setup. It also backs up the drivers it has installed. This is important because Driver Detective can immediately tell if a driver has become corrupted and will replace the faulty driver immediately.

Driver Detective is a great way to keep your PC maintained and make sure your computer’s drivers are always up-to-date.

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Windows Doesn't Always Detect The Correct Drivers

Windows Gets It Wrong

Windows is often very good at detecting the correct driver for an installed piece of hardware, but occasionally it will select the wrong driver for your device or miss an update. You may, or may not, notice the problem right away, depending upon what functions have been lost. To correct the problem, you can download and install the correct driver manually, but this is a time consuming process. If you rely on the manual correction method, you’ll need to correct the mistake each time Windows errs in its driver choice. You may also miss out on updates from the driver manufacturer.

Maintaining computers takes up a large portion of my time, so I’m all for anything that works correctly and automates tedious manual processes like finding, downloading and installing Windows drivers. I’m also all for anything that can help prevent problems from arising in the future. Driver Detective helps on both fronts. With Driver Detective loaded onto your computer, you can be sure that you will always have the correct driver for your computer’s configuration. You’ll also have a backup copy of the driver handy in case something goes wrong. Driver Detective also maintains your drivers by watching for, locating, downloading and installing driver updates when they appear.

You don’t have to wait for Windows to pick up the correct driver and you never have to worry about using the wrong driver for your installed devices when you turn your driver management over to Driver Detective. Simply install Driver Detective and let the software do the rest. Any time a driver update is released for your installed hardware, Driver Detective will find it, download it and install it. Driver Detective provides a backup for your installed drivers to prevent problems from occurring should your installed driver become damaged, corrupted or accidentally deleted.

Driver Detective has been downloaded and used for years by people who want to take care of their computers but don’t want to spend hours doing it. It works well and that’s why I tell my clients to use Driver Detective as their driver management solution.

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Windows 7 Handles Some Driver Problems, Not Others

XP Has No Direct Upgrade Path

If you’re running Windows XP or an earlier version of the operating system, there is no direct upgrade path to Windows 7. That means you’ll need to do a “clean installation.” That involves backing up your data and reinstalling your applications. While this might seem like a daunting task, it will give you the opportunity to evaluate all of the software in your current load. My advice? If you don’t need it, don’t reload it.

For your hardware, you’ll need to do a little research to determine whether your manufacturer has released and updated driver. If so, Windows 7 will often (but not always) install it for you. In itself, this is a time-saver. Dealing with old or missing drivers can be exceptionally time-consuming. Even with the right drivers, things don’t always go smoothly.

The installation process has a few hitches in it, most noticeably one that places the computer in an infinite mid-installation rebooting loop under certain circumstances. This isn’t the universal experience by any means. I upgraded my computer at home (running Vista) in just a few hours with no real issues. Getting the remaining drivers installed and configured, which would have taken an additional evening, was handled by Driver Detective.

I always recommend driver management software. Driver Detective, which has been downloaded and installed by more than a million users, locates, downloads and installs updated drivers for any computer system. After installing the correct drivers, Driver Detective watches over the computer’s drivers, ready to replace old, outdated, corrupted or missing drivers instantly without additional assistance from you.

Finding and installing drivers is among the least-rewarding tasks associated with computer maintenance. Driver updates often sneak up on you, following upgrades and patches. If you don’t have the time to search for updated drivers for your computer, I recommend that you consider letting Driver Detective do the heavy lifting for you.

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Windows Driver Problems Can Slow Your Computer

Solving Driver Problems Is Crucial

Driver problems can render a new (or old) piece of hardware completely useless, or they can disable hardware functions. Driver problems can seem to crop up suddenly, especially following an upgrade or addition of some sort, or they can plague a piece of hardware from the day you take it out of the box. There are literally millions of drivers out there. Finding the correct driver for your hardware lies somewhere between science and art these days.

For the last several major revisions, Windows has been equipped with the ability to identify and load the “correct” driver for your attached hardware. That sounds good because it means less work for the end user, right? In practice, however, Windows gets it wrong sometimes, and loading the wrong driver can be just as disastrous as not having a driver at all.

Windows comes with a number of specific and generic drivers, to be sure. For some common hardware, the user needs to look no farther than Windows itself. For other hardware, users must rely on the hardware manufacturer to write and update drivers as needed. When a manufacturer decides that it will no longer update a driver, that decision becomes a kiss of death for the no-longer-supported hardware. The next OS patch or revision may render the unsupported device completely useless.

There’s little the end user can do once a decision is made to drop support for a piece of hardware. Don’t assume that the hardware that’s being dropped is old, either. Many pieces of hardware have lifespans measured in months because the manufacturer has decided not to support the device any longer.

For the most part, however, you can get good results from using a driver management program like Driver Detective to find, install and update your computer’s complement of hardware drivers. Driver Detective has been downloaded and used millions of times to manage hardware drivers.

Driver Detective works on all versions of Windows, and can help keep your computer up-to-date on drivers. Using the most updated drivers can help you avoid more serious problems down the road.

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