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!

Photo Credit: Nick Perla, via Flickr

If you’re a Windows XP diehard, you’re probably not making any quick moves to update your operating system to Windows 7. Windows 7 hits the market on October 22, 2009. You may or may not realize that Windows XP hit the market on October 25, 2001. Eight years ago. Eight years is a long time to run an operating system. A lot of things change in eight years. If you decide to celebrate Windows XP’s birthday by retiring it, you’ll be in for some changes yourself.

You Can Still Use XP Drivers Virtually

First, there is no direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. You’ll need to do a complete install, which means that you’ll need to back up all of your files and re-add them to your drive once your upgrade is done. You may also need to find and install new drivers for your hardware. That may not be the most pleasant task, but it doesn’t have to be difficult, either. You can manage all of your drivers with a third-party driver manager like Driver Detective. Driver Detective will locate all of the appropriate drivers, download them and install them. You don’t need to do anything. It will even take care of the drivers that are installed, and replace them if they get corrupted or go missing.

If you have Windows XP software that you don’t want to (or can’t) upgrade, you can still run it using Windows 7’s virtual XP environment. (As I said, some things have changed.) You can also still use the XP drivers in the virtual XP environment. Under the new license for Windows 7, you can purchase downgrade rights to Windows XP for a short period of time (about six months), after which, you won’t be able to purchase computers that come with XP loaded. You’ll also have to pay for the privilege of downgrading. Only certain premium editions of Windows 7 come with downgrade rights.

Sooner or later, (and sooner, if Microsoft has anything to say about it), Microsoft is going to drop support altogether for Windows XP. Once you start using Windows 7, you may find that it changes the way you think about XP. Windows 7 is more stable than Windows Vista and Microsoft has addressed some of the issues Vista users were most critical about. In short, Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have (and could have) been. To borrow a phrase from a very old TV commercial: “Try it! You’ll like it!”
Photo Credit: Randen Pederson

For diehard Windows XP fans (or just for those who have software designed for Windows XP), Windows 7 will include a virtual environment and Windows XP drivers that will enable you to run your old XP software on Windows 7. And yes, I did use the term old.

Why Vista Never Caught On

Windows XP is the darling of diehard Windows users for more than one reason. First, users are incredibly comfortable with Windows XP and much of the software used at the enterprise level is still available for Windows XP.

Second, Vista didn’t provide a compelling reason to upgrade. Without user demand, software publishers didn’t write updated versions of their applications for Windows. Those that did often left out critical drivers. That, by itself, made Vista hard to love.

Third, the update cycle for the Windows OS didn’t mesh very well with users’ personal upgrade cycles. The hardware requirements for running Vista were not inconsequential for some users, and as a result, millions of potential users decided to opt out of the Windows Vista upgrade.

Now comes Windows 7 and Microsoft is trying its best to eliminate the excuses users come up with to avoid upgrading to Windows Vista. For those users who are an entire revision behind, the switch to Windows 7 will be an eye-opener. The virtualization environment means that software designed for Windows XP is still usable on Windows 7 provided that you’ve set up a virtual XP environment.

Don’t expect Windows XP to hang around forever. As Microsoft commits further to the Vista/Windows 7 platform, it becomes less likely that the company will back off of the product’s current development path. It also becomes increasingly less likely that the company will continue to make efforts to help users bridge the gap between Windows XP and Windows 7.

For right now, users can still purchase downgrade rights to Windows XP, but that window is scheduled to close about six months after the latest version of the OS is released in October. Once the downgrade window disappears, users (except those in Microsoft’s volume licensing program) will be left to choose between Windows Vista and Windows 7. For me, I’ll go with Windows 7.

Photo Credit: Josh Bancroft, via Flickr