Windows 7 has OFFICIALLY RTM'ed!

[ripken204]

im just waiting for technet already, 1 more week!

[Access Denied]

LOL, Im waiting on Oct 22.

[Maelstorm]

I'm guessing they will just bump up the number a little on the retail version then? Sounds great though! And many manufacturers have already made drivers etc for win 7 thanks to MS's two free public releases so upgrading will not be difficult at all!

Actually, Microsoft learned their lesson with the Vista driver fiasco. Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows XP uses...From what I am told.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Maelstorm

[ripken204]

I'm guessing they will just bump up the number a little on the retail version then? Sounds great though! And many manufacturers have already made drivers etc for win 7 thanks to MS's two free public releases so upgrading will not be difficult at all!

Actually, Microsoft learned their lesson with the Vista driver fiasco. Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows XP uses...From what I am told.

For the most part it's true, nearly all drivers are compatible.

[CoffeeFiend]

Actually, Microsoft learned their lesson with the Vista driver fiasco. Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows XP uses...From what I am told.

What fiasco?

Ancient video cards not getting WDDM drivers? Just like old hardware from the Win9x era (VXD drivers) that never got WDM drivers written for?

Old hardware not getting x64 drivers? Which again has nothing to do with Vista, the exact same applies to XP x64, Win 2003 (R2 or not) x64, Win 2008 (R2 or not) x64 as well as Win7 x64.

Vista x86 will use the vast majority of plain old XP drivers just fine, and so will Win 7 x86.

Devices without 64 bit drivers that didn't work under Vista won't work under any other 64 bit version of Windows, Win 7 x64 included.

There are real no changes, other than the new version 1.1 of WDDM for video drivers (won't help for ancient cards either) Basically, if it works under Win 7, it would also have worked under Vista.

100% of my old stuff worked just fine with Vista x86, including a DVB-S card from 2002 or so (whose XP drivers actually sucked), a BenQ scanner from 2001, a SCSI film scanner from the late 90's, and a HP Laserjet 4+ -- a 1994 vintage. So far, the scanner (slow as it's USB 1.1, so-so color matching, weak DMax and so on) and printer (rollers needed replacing again, paper jam-o-rama, token ring was the only option as far as jetdirect goes, B&W only, no more parts available, etc) were replaced by a networked $50 all-in-one printer/scanner/fax/copier combo that beats them both (very handy too, even has an ADF, plus it's space saving) and also has x64 drivers.

But updating drivers is the OEM's job. Stop buying from companies who make buggy drivers or don't support newer versions of the OS (or 64 bit versions) coming out shortly after and so on. Vote with your wallet.

[ripken204]

i would have to afree with you coffeefiend, just prepare to be flamed by those who had issues.

and not all xp x86 drivers work with vista x86, my dads 10 yr old printer..

in this case, HP said why would we care about a printer that's so old? in which i have to agree.

new OSes may force ppl to upgrade some other things, it's just something that people have to accept.

ppl need to stop being so cheap.

[cluberti]

I would agree - I have no problems with the folks who want to hold onto Windows XP, or Windows 2000, or even run Win9x. However, expecting hardware sold 10+ years ago to work with a new version of Windows from this year is a bit extreme. The hardware vendor has already written drivers for 9x, 2000, and XP, and you've gotten your money's worth. Most people won't work for free, which is essentially what these folks want driver / hardware vendors to do - write a new driver for a REALLY old device just so they don't have to pay for a new one. It's actually a double-whammy - the vendor doesn't get you purchasing a new device, and they'd be wasting money on man-hours writing software that would specifically keep you from spending money on new hardware. It's bad for business, and it's bad for stockholders. Again, no problem with folks using older hardware and older versions of Windows, but you'll have to stay on those versions to keep using the drivers you have. If the printer is that important that you can't replace it with something else, you're stuck where you are if you have no new drivers. That's the choice you have to make.

Actually, Microsoft learned their lesson with the Vista driver fiasco. Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows XP uses...From what I am told.

Not entirely true - there are drivers that work fine in XP that will NOT work in Vista or Win7 (these are mostly older video card drivers, due to the new WDDM 1.1 spec), and things like printer drivers written for the old NT4 spooler model that won't handle running in a service but without the user-mode portion of session 0 available (trust me, there are quite a few printer drivers that will fail this model, and thus won't work on Vista, 2008, or Win7/2008 R2) introduced with Vista and Server 2008.

[Access Denied]

I would agree - I have no problems with the folks who want to hold onto Windows XP, or Windows 2000, or even run Win9x. However, expecting hardware sold 10+ years ago to work with a new version of Windows from this year is a bit extreme. The hardware vendor has already written drivers for 9x, 2000, and XP, and you've gotten your money's worth. Most people won't work for free, which is essentially what these folks want driver / hardware vendors to do - write a new driver for a REALLY old device just so they don't have to pay for a new one. It's actually a double-whammy - the vendor doesn't get you purchasing a new device, and they'd be wasting money on man-hours writing software that would specifically keep you from spending money on new hardware. It's bad for business, and it's bad for stockholders. Again, no problem with folks using older hardware and older versions of Windows, but you'll have to stay on those versions to keep using the drivers you have. If the printer is that important that you can't replace it with something else, you're stuck where you are if you have no new drivers. That's the choice you have to make.

That right there might be the post of the year so far. I could not agree more, not explain my thoughts personally, any better than the above quote.

[ripken204]

I'm guessing they will just bump up the number a little on the retail version then? Sounds great though! And many manufacturers have already made drivers etc for win 7 thanks to MS's two free public releases so upgrading will not be difficult at all!

Actually, Microsoft learned their lesson with the Vista driver fiasco. Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows XP uses...From what I am told.

For the most part it's true, nearly all drivers are compatible.

wow i just realized that i didn't read this properly, i read it as "Windows 7 will use the same exact drivers that Windows Vista uses".

what i should have said was, you are totally wrong.