Does Vista need product drivers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Panic
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Panic

WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install that
monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
..
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
 
Really, the only monitor "driver" that might be needed is a color
profile (for critical graphics work). My Gateway FPD2185W
is recognized as a Generic Monitor under Device Manager, yet
the proper resolution (1680x1050) and the proper refresh rate
(60 Hz) was recognized and properly configured during the Vista
initial install.

Check Creative's web site and FAQs for your SB Audigy device.



| WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
| installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
| computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
| won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install that
| monitor's driver before it will work right?
|
| I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
| NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
| .
| Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
| Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
|
| Etc.
|
| --
| Darrell R. Schmidt
| B-58 Web Site
| http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/
|
|
 
Vista RTM ships with 19, 500 Drivers on the RTM DVD. That is considerably
more than XP. They will use MSFT Update to supply them going forward. That
said, go to the specific manufacture sites for any drivers that aren't
provided after you setup Vista *or* and this is important, for many of your
devices the generic drivers that MSFT provides often come from the
manufacturers but are earlier driver models than will be available by RTM
public sales or forward from that. Brother Printer is a case in point.
They've already provided a driver to MSFT for Vista RTM, but soon there may
be a driver that has more features or functionality.

So you might want to check the Gateway, Nvidia, and Creative web sites from
time to time when and after you setup Vista, particularly if you don't like
the functionality a generic driver sets up with, or for the more compelling
reason that you setup Vista and need a driver for these devices.

CH
 
XP required drivers. It is just that, when it was released, it contained
drivers for a lot of current hardware. If you bought hardware that was
designed starting the next day after XP was released, you potentially needed
drivers.

Same thing happens with Vista. Hardware manufacturers will have Vista
drivers for their current products. Their next generation of products will
require you to use the driver disk that comes with them or to obtain drivers
online during install.

Dale
 
Hi:

Does anyone have any idea as to why HP is dragging their feet in providing
drivers for Vista? Most people found this out when they upgraded from IE6 to
IE7 and lost the functionality of their HP printers etc. There is now a work
around for this specific problem; however, HP has yet to also resolve this
issue formally.

Guess they want everyone to buy new printers older than a year or so. I
have a HP All-In-One 6110 that most likely will prevent me from upgrading to
Vista unless HP does something soon. I sent them an email about this and got
back the standard or generic response.... "No one can really tell me
anything specific at this point".
 
Vista has not been released to the public yet. Why would you expect
drivers?

Dale

ColTom2 said:
Hi:

Does anyone have any idea as to why HP is dragging their feet in
providing drivers for Vista? Most people found this out when they upgraded
from IE6 to IE7 and lost the functionality of their HP printers etc. There
is now a work around for this specific problem; however, HP has yet to
also resolve this issue formally.

Guess they want everyone to buy new printers older than a year or so. I
have a HP All-In-One 6110 that most likely will prevent me from upgrading
to Vista unless HP does something soon. I sent them an email about this
and got back the standard or generic response.... "No one can really tell
me anything specific at this point".



Panic said:
WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install that
monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
.
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
ColTom2 said:
Hi:

Does anyone have any idea as to why HP is dragging their feet in
providing drivers for Vista? Most people found this out when they
upgraded from IE6 to IE7 and lost the functionality of their HP
printers etc. There is now a work around for this specific problem;
however, HP has yet to also resolve this issue formally.
Click to expand...

It strikes me that a better question would be "why in the name of God would
a printer driver need to know, let alone care, what version of Internet
Explorer I'm running, aside from perhaps the few times I'm actually printing
webpages from Internet Explorer itself."
 
Hi Dale:

Not to be curt, but somehow you sound just like HP. I guess the 19,500
drivers that MS is shipping with Vista RTM, as mentioned prior by Chad,
should have waited until Vista is released to the public.

Tom


Dale said:
Vista has not been released to the public yet. Why would you expect
drivers?

Dale

ColTom2 said:
Hi:

Does anyone have any idea as to why HP is dragging their feet in
providing drivers for Vista? Most people found this out when they
upgraded from IE6 to IE7 and lost the functionality of their HP printers
etc. There is now a work around for this specific problem; however, HP
has yet to also resolve this issue formally.

Guess they want everyone to buy new printers older than a year or so. I
have a HP All-In-One 6110 that most likely will prevent me from upgrading
to Vista unless HP does something soon. I sent them an email about this
and got back the standard or generic response.... "No one can really tell
me anything specific at this point".



Panic said:
WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install
that monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
.
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Robert:

Somehow you missed the gut of my statement when I said that the upgrade
caused me to lose functionality of my HP All-In-One. I was not speaking of
printing WebPages from Internet Explorer, as you referenced, but the entire
capability to use the HP printer, which includes, printing, scanning, etc.

Tom
 
Actually everything needs drivers - the question you want to ask is, "Will I
need to locate and download a bunch of drivers that aren't included in the
distribution CD/DVD?"

The answer is, "Who knows?" Since we don't know much about your hardware
it's hard to say if there will be drivers in the box for it or not.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
They can't all be done at once. For all you know the drivers you need will
be in that 19,500. Those were not all available on the day Vista went to
RTM. All users of Vista RTM today are using it through "early adopter"
programs. That's because it's not released yet. Give them a chance. Not
all drivers from every manufacturer will be available on January 30th
either. But if the hardware is current hardware, most manufacturers will
get it done.

Dale

ColTom2 said:
Hi Dale:

Not to be curt, but somehow you sound just like HP. I guess the 19,500
drivers that MS is shipping with Vista RTM, as mentioned prior by Chad,
should have waited until Vista is released to the public.

Tom


Dale said:
Vista has not been released to the public yet. Why would you expect
drivers?

Dale

ColTom2 said:
Hi:

Does anyone have any idea as to why HP is dragging their feet in
providing drivers for Vista? Most people found this out when they
upgraded from IE6 to IE7 and lost the functionality of their HP printers
etc. There is now a work around for this specific problem; however, HP
has yet to also resolve this issue formally.

Guess they want everyone to buy new printers older than a year or so. I
have a HP All-In-One 6110 that most likely will prevent me from
upgrading to Vista unless HP does something soon. I sent them an email
about this and got back the standard or generic response.... "No one can
really tell me anything specific at this point".



WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to
be installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a
new computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine
so I won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to
install that monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
.
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
ColTom2 said:
Hi Robert:

Somehow you missed the gut of my statement when I said that the
upgrade caused me to lose functionality of my HP All-In-One. I was
not speaking of printing WebPages from Internet Explorer, as you
referenced, but the entire capability to use the HP printer, which
includes, printing, scanning, etc.
Click to expand...

No I understood you perfectly. And I repeat: Why on earth would a printer
driver need to know or care what version of Internet Explorer I'm running.

As an aside, I use a HP A-I-O myself and find it works perfectly adequately
with the built in Microsoft scanning and printing tools. Depending on what
model of A-I-O you have, this might work for you too.
 
Ill also add that even if the drivers are included in Vista it is still a
good to check the manufacturers site to see if they have even newer drivers.

Craig Brown


Richard G. Harper said:
Actually everything needs drivers - the question you want to ask is, "Will
I need to locate and download a bunch of drivers that aren't included in
the distribution CD/DVD?"

The answer is, "Who knows?" Since we don't know much about your hardware
it's hard to say if there will be drivers in the box for it or not.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


Panic said:
WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install that
monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
.
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I got an older HP Scanjet 5300 driver for XP to work in Vista but it takes a
few driver insall attempts before it works, and it has to be repeated from
time to time after a reboot.

CH
 
Yup. Because unless you get into the situations where they don't offer
driver anymore or they are very difficult to find, some of the drivers being
given to MSFT aren't going to have as much functionality as the ones that
begin to show up on sites in droves in the next three months (I'm talking
hardware drivers here not software drivers), and in the case of for example
some of the newer printers and scanners MSFT doesn't always have drivers
from the manufacturers for every one of them.

MSFT Update will be adding drivers as soon as they can get them.

I'd always go to the device manufacturer's site first to check as a
rule--Vista pretty agressively will try to recognize the added hardware and
install a driver though and much of the time, it seems to work well (for the
drivers they have so far--Jim Allchin says RTM DVD shipped with 19,500).

CH


Craig Brown said:
Ill also add that even if the drivers are included in Vista it is still a
good to check the manufacturers site to see if they have even newer
drivers.

Craig Brown


Richard G. Harper said:
Actually everything needs drivers - the question you want to ask is,
"Will I need to locate and download a bunch of drivers that aren't
included in the distribution CD/DVD?"

The answer is, "Who knows?" Since we don't know much about your hardware
it's hard to say if there will be drivers in the box for it or not.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


Panic said:
WinXP reduced the number of products that require a product driver to be
installed. Does Vista improve on that? I'm considering buying a new
computer with Vista on it. My flat screen monitor still works fine so I
won't need to include a new monitor with it. Will I have to install
that monitor's driver before it will work right?

I have a Gateway FPD1730 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, January 2003 which uses a
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
.
Same question about my audio system. I have Creative SB Audigy
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Etc.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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