Part 8: Windows XP vs. Vista: Device Manager

012: Device Manager
Commonly whenever you install Windows XP for the first time Windows natively supports all of the devices on your computer but with Windows Vista count on near nothing working correctly (as you can see with this screenshot below). With this in mind, expect this to be fixed within Windows Vista soon, but is this really Microsoft’s fault?

That’s the argument if this is really Microsoft’s fault or not. For instance, when you purchase new software off the shelf or online shouldn’t your software work? The flip side is the fault of Manufacturers not providing updated drivers to fit with Vista. I honestly can’t blame manufacturers from falling behind in driver support. Remember when the 64-bit of Windows XP came out – thats when driver production started to become difficult. Today we have both the Windows XP 32-bit, 64-bit and now we have Vista 32-bit and 64-bit support – that’s four different drivers manufacturers have to provide to make their devices work properly. Not to mention the new DirectX 10 standardization with Vista, DirectX 9.0c with XP, DVI, HDMI, HDCP and other related new technology already available today.

To make matters worse Microsoft Vista requires new hardware drivers to be digitally signed depending on it’s requirements – which further decreases the delivery time of when “us” users can install device drivers.

Windows XP Device Manager