Last month, Microsoft made a Kinect software developer kit available for Windows. This will allow third-party software developers to create new Windows applications for the Kinect technology. Prior to the release of the Kinect drivers for Windows, the technology was available only for the Xbox 360 game system and as an open-source kit from PrimeSense.

Hardware Drivers Mean Everything

With the availability of the Kinect drivers, consumers should expect to see new gaming opportunities for Windows 7 applications, as well as apps that are programmed using Visual Basic/Visual Studio 2010, C++ or C#. This is good news for gamers who don’t have an Xbox 360 system but still want to take advantage of the technology. It may also be a way for Xbox 360 gamers who have the Kinect system to extend the technology to their PCs.

The availability of Kinect drivers may also open some other creative uses of the Kinect technology. For the most part, it’s designed to be a game controller, but the technology could also provide precise control for non-gaming applications. One potential might be applications that study or use human motion. The Kinect technology may also be useful for designing more realistic animations.

The availability of hardware drivers is essential to support any hardware-based technology in Windows. Keeping drivers updated and properly maintained is also important to ensure that a Windows computer system interacts reliably with the attached peripheral devices.

With third party drivers for Windows-compatible hardware, there is no predictable development or update cycle. Each manufacturer is responsible for updating and distributing its own drivers. This complicates driver maintenance because the user must continually check for new driver updates. The Windows operating system does have a way to automate driver updates, but not all manufacturers use it and not all driver updates need to be loaded.

To manage and maintain drivers, consider using a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective will monitor your system for driver updates, and will track which updates are required for your particular system. In addition, it will download, install and back up any new drivers, and keep a fresh copy available on the system in the event that the driver software becomes corrupted, or is accidentally removed.

Driver Detective also takes the drudgery out of maintaining your system. You don’t have to remember to look for updates because Driver Detective does that for you, quickly and reliably, every time. More than 1,000,000 users have downloaded and installed Driver Detective. Download your copy today!

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Although Windows 7 has been available to consumers and businesses alike for nearly 18 months, the adoption rate of the newest operating system has been disappointing, at least at the enterprise level. Currently, the enterprise adoption rate of Windows 7 is about 10%, but that’s expected to change dramatically in the remainder of 2012. Windows 7 addressed many of user concerns about Windows hardware drivers, 64-bit support and virtualization. Microsoft also paired Windows 7 for desktops with a newly polished version of Windows Server to address enterprise concerns about the functionality of Active Directory.

What Will It Take To Boost Windows Adoption?

Microsoft even took the more dramatic step of switching to signed hardware drivers for Windows 7. While Windows 7 will still boot with unsigned drivers, the process of acknowledging and accepting unsigned drivers is slow and annoying, to say the least. At the enterprise level, these concerns are minor in comparison to roll-out issues with network-friendly functions like Active Directory support, and the sheer cost of switching desktop platforms on potentially hundreds or thousands of computers – especially when the upgrade process requires a completely fresh installation.

One other speed bump appears to be that some organizations are using the opportunity to consider other options – and additional options – to enhance their computing environment. Virtual desktops, virtual applications, and remote support considerations all present an opportunity to recapture something meaningful for IT in consideration for the time and effort required to roll out Windows 7.

Migrating to Windows 7 will take more than time alone. The oldest desktops will not provide a positive user experience, although Microsoft did a notable job in making sure the hardware requirements for Windows 7 weren’t onerous.

Tools to improve the migration process have sprung up everywhere, in an effort to persuade corporations to go the Windows 7 route. These tools enable the IT Department to virtualize a Windows 7 desktop, configure it and do all of the necessary tweaks and changes, then port the entire image – complete with applications and hardware drivers – to waiting desktop clients. Once the techs restore the user data, the task of migration is done. This will significantly speed the process of moving Windows 7 to the corporate environment.

At the same time, enterprise users can add new elements to the network environment that make future rollouts and user support easier and faster to accomplish.

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Windows Home Server was originally introduced in 2007 as a way for home users to create and manage a small network. Home Server was not Microsoft’s biggest seller, but among PC enthusiasts, Home Server was the ideal way to manage a small army of computers. One of the biggest selling points of Home Server was a tool called Drive Extender. Drive Extender enabled users to store all of their data from a number of internal and external networked drives on one virtual drive space, accessible to the entire network. Home Server also included all of the hardware drivers required for network users to take advantage of a centralized print server, file sharing, remote PC access, drive redundancy and centralized data backup.

Latest Iteration Of Home Server Kills Drive Extender

Drive Extender made a combined network storage space that was identified by a single drive letter. The actual data may be scattered around your home network, but it appeared to be stored together. This was a great setup for power-users who maintain collections of digitized video and other large data files.

With Microsoft’s beta-tester release of Home Server 2011, Drive Extender is gone. That may pose a problem for users who have come to like the old Windows Home Server, and for certain users, it calls into question the value of upgrading to the latest Home Server product. In place of Drive Extender, the system includes a “Move Folder Wizard” which will create a drive letter for discrete storage spaces around the home network. Instead of having all of the storage virtually connected behind a single drive letter, Home Server users will need to manage a series of drive letters to access their storage spaces.

In the Windows Home Server beta product, Microsoft has also reintroduced Shadow Copy, a backup function that will make a redundant copy of your files. Each backup drive partition has a 2 TB drive size limit, which also limits what you can store.

Microsoft experienced some problems early in Home Server’s development history with data corruption. With the current iteration of Home Server, the data corruption issues were addressed, but unfortunately, they resurfaced in Home Server 2011′s development. The problem proved to be so complex, it threatened the release schedule of Home Server 2011.

Microsoft understands the Home Server enthusiasts’ plight, and will likely address the data corruption issue with shared drives minus the pressure of having to come up with a suitable release. In the meantime, many Home Server users have vowed to overlook the latest release in favor of their older, more comfortable and more functional operating system.

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Microsoft is expected to unveil an ARM version of Windows including hardware drivers for the new processor architecture. The current version of Windows cannot be ported as-is because existing drivers for Windows will not work with non-Intel processors.

New Windows Version Will Debut At CES

Several media outlets have reported that Microsoft will debut the new architecture for Windows at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. The ARM processor was developed for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, and represents a significant shift in Microsoft’s strategy to penetrate the mobile market.

Microsoft has long made available Windows Mobile, but the company is trying to address Apple’s iPad and gain a foothold in the tablet market. Devices that use Intel processors are less desirable in mobile devices because they generally use more power, and therefore reduce battery life.

The Apple iPad uses a customized A4 chip, and will have been on the market for nearly a year by the time Microsoft’s much awaited tablet computer hits the scene. In addition to the ARM version of Windows, Microsoft is expected to unveil its tablet computer at the 2011 CES.

Samsung and Dell will reportedly sell tablet PCs that ship with the Windows operating system. Intel says it will introduce a line of processors designed especially for tablet computers by the end of 2011, which would allow standard versions of Windows to operate smoothly on them.

One area in which Microsoft will have to work to make sure customers remain happy is its ARM drivers. The unavailability of drivers will sorely limit the functionality of the new tablet devices, and buyers are not likely to remain happy for very long in the absence of working drivers.

Tablets are meant to be mobile, but connectivity to other devices, both wireless and wired, is sure to be a significant draw (or turnoff) for consumers who are trying to get the most out of their tablet PCs. In the absence of ARM drivers for Windows, Microsoft can count on another failure in its effort to mount a serious challenge to the players already in the market space, most notably Apple.

If Intel can indeed deliver a line of tablet-ready processors by the end of 2011, the pressure may be off Microsoft and hardware manufacturers to rely on ARM-based processors to challenge Apple. The availability of Intel drivers would mean that consumers can more reliably depend upon existing driver implementations, or working drivers that contain relatively minor modifications. Should Intel fail to deliver, and the porting of Windows drivers for ARM processors take too long or experience significant problems, Microsoft could once again find itself without a dog in the fight.

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