A little more than a year ago, the biggest gaming news was – by far – the Kinect. This Xbox device was meant to go head-to-head with the Nintendo Wii in the hope of changing the hearts and minds of gamers around the world. Windows drivers for the Kinect weren’t available, but in a somewhat surprising move, Prime Sense – the company on whose reference designs the Kinect was built – provided open source device drivers for the Kinect. Microsoft also became involved in some behind-the-scenes open source driver development.

Will Microsoft Manage Kinect for the PC

Microsoft is now fully (and apparently transparently) behind the development of Windows drivers for the Kinect. The question is whether Microsoft is ahead of the Kinect-for-PC development? At the most recent CES, Microsoft left the impression that it will be giving away the Kinect drivers and relying on the sales of the Kinect device to generate revenue.

Of course there are a few rules to content with, one of the most notable being that open source drivers and the Xbox version of the Kinect can’t be used for commercial projects. Developers may also be limited to projects that run on Windows 7 and/or Windows 8. Noncommercial projects may only use the Windows software developer kit to write code for the company’s Kinect for Windows hardware.

Do all of these restrictions add up to too much Microsoft muddling in the Kinect soup? Initially, Microsoft wanted to limit Kinect development to the Xbox. With the release of open source drivers, Microsoft lost some of the control over development for the Kinect, though not necessarily development for the Xbox. Following the release of the Prime Sense drivers, Microsoft has reasserted its control over the development of PC applications for the Kinect following an open source model for the drivers.

It’s hard to know where Kinect for the PC development will be in a year, but it’s safe to say that the Kinect’s appeal extends beyond game applications. Developers expect to produce applications related to art, medicine, the military, automobiles, manufacturing and more. While some analysts think that Microsoft has repositioned itself ahead of the pack on Kinect PC development, I’m more skeptical.

Microsoft didn’t have a plan beyond the Xbox for the Kinect. Only begrudgingly did it extend the drivers to the PC, and only after this did the real potential for the hardware come into sharper focus for the company. Despite Microsoft’s efforts to control the direction of the Kinect for the PC, I think the open source development of applications and eventually the introduction of the next-generation of depth-sensing controller hardware will allow for the development of genuinely “open” applications. That doesn’t mean “open source” development, but rather development that can – but isn’t required to – develop according to Microsoft’s rules.
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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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With Windows 7′s release date just little more than three weeks away, you may be thinking more seriously about whether you’re going to upgrade to the new system when it arrives on store shelves. Microsoft’s track record with OS upgrades has been tarnished lately, and the company is determined not to repeat the same mistakes. One area in which the company took a lot of flack was the unavailability of device drivers for Windows Vista. Microsoft has that in the bag this time, or so they say. Upgraders should expect to find a plethora of drivers available on release day, which should make the process of upgrading smoother.

Upgrading From Windows Vista

If you’re upgrading your system from Windows Vista, you should have a smooth ride. There’s one caveat: if you’re running Windows Vista Home Basic, there’s no upgrade path for you. You’ll need to install the full Windows 7 product. If you’re upgrading from Windows Vista Home Premium, the upgrade to Windows Vista should be relatively easy. Your computer is already very likely to be capable of running Windows 7, and unless you have some very old or very dodgy devices, you should be in luck when it comes to drivers.

If you’re upgrading to Windows 7 from an older version of Windows (like XP), there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Windows 7 contains a virtual environment in which you can run Windows XP. This will work for you if you have an older, irreplaceable piece of hardware or software that must run on XP. When you need to operate it, simply fire up XP virtually and run like the wind. Your XP drivers will work from the XP virtual environment. That won’t be the case if you attempt to run devices using XP drivers from the Windows 7 environment, though.

You’ll also need to verify that your older hardware is in good enough shape to run Windows 7. Microsoft offers a compatibility checking tool that will give your hardware setup the once-over to see if you need to make any hardware modifications before installing Windows 7. Older devices, smaller hard disks and minimum memory requirements are most likely to trip up old hardware.

If your hardware is seriously old… as in Jurassic or Pre-Colombian… you might want to consider just purchasing a low-cost desktop system that comes with Windows 7 already installed. Really old hardware is unlikely to meet the requirements of Windows 7. Even if you can get it to load and run, it’s performance will suffer tremendously and you’re not likely to reap the benefits of upgrading your system.

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