Microsoft is stepping up the pressure on Windows XP users to migrate to Windows 7. The company re-iterated its call to move to Windows 7 ASAP at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference, reminding users that Windows XP will lose all support in 2014 and Vista will get the same treatment starting in 2012. So far, the migration hasn’t been as fast as Microsoft would have liked, despite the fact that Windows 7 has been well received by consumers and IT professionals alike. One stubborn area remains the availability of Windows drivers.

Support Won’t Last Forever

Sales of Windows 7 remain strong, driven in part by the sales of new PCs. Upgrade remains a problem for enterprises that opted out of the Vista intermediate step. Missing out on the Vista upgrade meant that critical portions of the underlying Windows 7 infrastructure were not loaded. Since there’s no direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7, those who skipped Vista are in for a complete reload.

That’s one part of the problem on the enterprise level. Many enterprise customers aren’t willing to roll out Windows 7 on old computers, and have opted to do a more controlled rollout over a longer period of time. Second, the development of Windows drivers for some hardware remains a stubborn issue. For enterprises, migrating to Windows 7 may also mean significant investments in replacement third-party hardware that’s not currently supported under Windows 7.

The same concerns are true for individuals who have not yet upgraded from Windows XP or some earlier version of the operating system. An upgrade to Windows 7 may require more than simply licensing the operating system. Peripherals that work well with an earlier version of Windows may not be supported under Windows 7.

There are some ways to overcome this, however. Windows 7 does support emulation, and provided that emulation support is also built into your hardware, you may be able to emulate an older version of the Windows operating system, complete with drivers, to ensure that your unsupported hardware is still accessible.

For individuals who are considering upgrading, or who must upgrade for other reasons, check with the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to determine whether your peripherals are or aren’t supported under Windows 7. You may not have a good workaround for your unsupported Windows hardware, but at least you won’t be surprised and can plan a workable alternative before you upgrade.

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Jungo will introduce WinDriver a multi-OS driver development toolkit at the 2011 Embedded World 2011 conference in Nuremburg, Germany March 1-3, 2011. The WinDriver platform is used primarily by Windows driver developers, but it can be used to develop hardware drivers for other operating systems as well.

Lastest Version Is Versatile

The newest version of WinDriver is 10.3.0 and is exceptionally stable, according to Jungo. The hardware driver development kit is used to create optimized custom drivers for computer hardware and is considered to be device independent. WinDriver offers driver development support for USB, PCI, PCI Express, CardBus, CompactPCI, ISA, PMC, PCI-X, PCI-104 and PCMCIA devices, and is used my many major manufacturers to develop hardware drivers for their peripheral devices.

Jungo guarantees that Windows hardware drivers developed on WinDriver are fully Windows Hardware Labs Quality-compliant and ready for testing. Jungo also offers hardware driver testing and submission services that can save manufacturers time and money.
Having a quality assurance process for Windows drivers is important, especially in the era of the Windows signed driver. Being able to get updated Windows hardware drivers to market is also important for maintaining customer satisfaction.

Microsoft users have consistently rated the availability of Windows hardware drivers to be among their most important adoption considerations, since hardware driver management is among the most time-consuming of user maintenance tasks. The reliable availability of drivers is also a significant user experience issue.

For reliable driver management, consider Driver Detective. Driver Detective will monitor, download, install and verify the operation of a computer’s hardware drivers. Driver Detective will also maintain a backup copy of each installed driver. In the event that something happens to the driver, it becomes corrupted or accidentally deleted, Driver Detective will reinstall the correct driver.

Using a driver management program like Driver Detective is a great way to avoid problems with hardware drivers, and to ensure that a computer is updated with the latest hardware drivers at all times. Driver Detective takes the work out of maintaining hardware drivers and works with any version of the Windows operating system.

With Windows 7, there’s more to driver management than just having signed drivers. Driver Detective will help you keep your computer up-to-date and avoid problems that may arise from using out-of-date drivers. It will also recognize corrupted drivers, so you don’t spend a lot of time trying to troubleshoot a problem. Download your copy of Driver Detective today!

If you’re experiencing a Windows driver problem, and you’re running Windows 7, you may be able to use a built-in feature of the Windows 7 operating system to help you troubleshoot. Having Windows fix driver problems sounds great, but it doesn’t always work out the way you might think. Nonetheless, Windows troubleshooting is worth a try.

How Does Windows Troubleshooting Work?

If you have a suspected hardware problem, or you just want to take a closer look at the built-in tool, go to the Windows button and type “Hardware and Devices.” This will bring up a list of potentially helpful links, one of which will be entitled “Find and fix problems with devices.” Choose this link and Windows will fire up a troubleshooting wizard that can examine the Windows hardware drivers you’re using.
The Hardware and Devices wizard will start by examining your system to see what drivers you have installed. This wizard will also check for missing drivers. How a driver goes “missing” is another story. Often, the driver becomes corrupted. In other cases, you or another user may have accidentally thrown out a driver. In odd cases, perhaps you threw away the driver on purpose and left your system in an unexpected position.

Regardless of how your driver “disappeared,” Windows can determine that you have a problem with the driver, or the correct driver is missing. If Windows finds an issue with your Windows driver, it will offer you the option to “Apply this fix” or “Skip this fix.” Generally, you should apply fixes, but there are situations where you would choose to bypass Windows’ suggestion(s).

If Windows can successfully reinstall the problematic driver, you might just have fixed your problem. If, for some reason, Windows can’t reinstall the driver or the driver installation doesn’t work, Windows will tell you that the driver installation failed and you’ll be left to scratch your head about next steps.

Windows may not be able to help you fix certain driver problems because it sometimes relies on having a working network connection to download and apply fixes. If the driver for your network adapter has been hosed, or certain basic Windows driver files have been removed from the installation, Windows won’t be able to help you out.
If you can’t get your network connection working, you may need to enlist the aid of a computer that can reach the network. Once you’ve got a successful network connection, you can go to the vendor’s site and download the correct driver for your setup. Save the new driver to a portable medium, such as a USB drive, and take it back to the ailing machine.

If your disabled driver is still installed on your computer, remove it using the Add/Remove Programs tool. At the very least, uninstall the driver. Once the old driver is out of the way, install a fresh copy of the device driver to see if this resolves your problem.

You may also consider using a driver management program like Driver Detective to manage your Windows drivers. Driver Detective will monitor your driver performance, update drivers, remove old and defective drivers and reinstall drivers that have stopped working. By using a driver management software program, you can avoid problems that crop up with some of your most important hardware device drivers.

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No one knows better than Microsoft itself the importance of Windows drivers. The lukewarm reception by consumers and developers alike of Windows Vista delivered a very important lesson about just how much is riding on Windows drivers. Although Windows 7 has been on the market for more than a year, Microsoft expects 2011 to be the year that tips the scales in favor of Windows 7, and the availability of Windows drivers will play a major role in the anticipated migration.

No Drivers, No Migration

The migration rate to Windows 7 has been steady thus far, but the Windows XP platform still has a significant installed user base. Windows 7 is slowly but surely whittling it away, but 2011 is the year Microsoft expects many business users to make the jump.

Windows 7 has been out on the market for more than a year. Hardware manufacturers have released a growing number of drivers for current and older products. The availability of drivers and the overall stability of the operating system haven’t gone unnoticed, but migration to a new operating system is usually a significant task in the business world. Migration requires a lot of planning and testing. Additionally, there’s no clear migration path for users that skipped the Vista platform upgrade and stuck with Windows XP.

Corporate budgeting is another issue. Budgets are often set 6-9 months in advance, so the money to support a large-scale migration may only now be available. Corporate users also need to take into account their replacement cycles. It doesn’t make sense to upgrade a desktop that you plan to replace in less than 12 months, unless you have a demonstrable need to do so.

Aside from data loss, one of the biggest concerns from those who plan to migrate is the availability of Windows drivers. Microsoft doesn’t control the availability of hardware drivers; the hardware manufacturer must provide those. If a manufacturer hasn’t provided a hardware driver for Windows 7 and doesn’t have a driver for Windows Vista, it’s a good bet that some hardware won’t be able to make the migration.

At this point, most hardware manufacturers that plan to support Windows 7 have made their drivers available or have them on the way. New products that hit the market are Windows 7 compatible, so replacement of non-compatible hardware is always a possibility. Windows 7 also supports a virtual XP mode, provided that the computer BIOS itself also supports virtualization. XP virtualization may be a solution for the “absolutely-critical-but-not-supported-hardware” problem, should it arise.

In any case, for those who migrate to Windows 7 in 2011, driver management and driver support will remain an important consideration.

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