What don't you like about Windows 7?

[jp2code]

Unfortunately, I don't get much of a sound card selection. As a software developer that has to go on location to do work from time to time, my machines are generally laptops.

I will look into these third party sound devices, though.

 

[logicearth]

Nope you are wrong. I have StereoMix on my card. It is up to the manufactures to implement it into there drivers. Microsoft does not block it.

I'm not 100% sure I believe this, but I'll go with it since I can't prove the contrary on your system.

So most older PCs, that were built prior to Win7, would likely not be able to support this.

Correct?

My main system is a laptop, so I use an external sound card. It was made prior to Windows 7 including Vista. I can take a screenshot of Recording devices if you don't believe me.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage SRM Review - Overclockers Club

 

[bagavan]

I like almost everything..

 

[jp2code]

My main system is a laptop, so I use an external sound card. It was made prior to Windows 7 including Vista. I can take a screenshot of Recording devices if you don't believe me.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage SRM Review - Overclockers Club

That's cool! I've got to get one of those!

Still, I have to get one, though, to get around Win7 limitations.

 

[cluberti]

It is true, actually - it was discussed during the beta for those of us on TAP programs. There are specific devices out there with drivers that are just not 100% Win7 compatible, and a lot of those are sound card drivers. Also, older Thinkpad laptops...

 

[Barman58]

My main system is a laptop, so I use an external sound card. It was made prior to Windows 7 including Vista. I can take a screenshot of Recording devices if you don't believe me.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage SRM Review - Overclockers Club

That's cool! I've got to get one of those!

Still, I have to get one, though, to get around Win7 limitations.

Sorry but how can a third party hardware manufacturer's decision to not update it's own product to support a feature that works on Windows 7 with other manufacturers hardware, be a win7 limitation

 

[Petey7]

OMG Barman, what are you doing. It almost seemed like you were trying to make sense. You know thats not allowed.

 

[jp2code]

Sorry but how can a third party hardware manufacturer's decision to not update it's own product to support a feature that works on Windows 7 with other manufacturers hardware, be a win7 limitation

Actually, monkey boy, it is more of an irritation with Windows' decision to load up a default driver that blocks accessibility instead of simply requiring a correct driver from the manufacturer.

The least they could do is show a notice icon under Device Manager that indicates a generic audio driver had to be loaded.

 

[Petey7]

Sorry but how can a third party hardware manufacturer's decision to not update it's own product to support a feature that works on Windows 7 with other manufacturers hardware, be a win7 limitation

Actually, monkey boy, it is more of an irritation with Windows' decision to load up a default driver that blocks accessibility instead of simply requiring a correct driver from the manufacturer.

The least they could do is show a notice icon under Device Manager that indicates a generic audio driver had to be loaded.

Yes, it so annoying when after doing a clean install my mouse, keyboard, display, sound, and internet all work. JP is absolutely right. We need it to be like the Windows 98 First Edition days. Who's with me?

 

[jp2code]

Yes, it so annoying when after doing a clean install my mouse, keyboard, display, sound, and internet all work. JP is absolutely right. We need it to be like the Windows 98 First Edition days. Who's with me?

Ew. What is your icon supposed to be?

 

[Petey7]

Yes, it so annoying when after doing a clean install my mouse, keyboard, display, sound, and internet all work. JP is absolutely right. We need it to be like the Windows 98 First Edition days. Who's with me?

Ew. What is your icon supposed to be?

What icon?

EDIT: do you mean my avatar? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda

EDIT2: also, I love how you completely missed the point of my post apparently.

 

[Darician]

I believe that something is better than nothing. True, the manufacturer should develop a driver but if Windows 7 can give basic functionality, again, something is better than nothing.

And an Audio Advantage SRM, that's a great audio card. I have an Audio Advantage Amigo and kind of wish I had bought the SRM instead.

 

[typ911411and718]

Yes, it so annoying when after doing a clean install my mouse, keyboard, display, sound, and internet all work. JP is absolutely right. We need it to be like the Windows 98 First Edition days. Who's with me?

Ew. What is your icon supposed to be?

What icon?

EDIT: do you mean my avatar? Yoda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EDIT2: also, I love how you completely missed the point of my post apparently.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHA....they didn't know yoda....oh that's rich....

 

[typ911411and718]

I believe that something is better than nothing. True, the manufacturer should develop a driver but if Windows 7 can give basic functionality, again, something is better than nothing.

And an Audio Advantage SRM, that's a great audio card. I have an Audio Advantage Amigo and kind of wish I had bought the SRM instead.

i disagree...in fact, i disagree greatly..."something" isnt' better than nothing when it comes to a company that's been around for decades, with countless softwares, countless upgrades, countless bug fixes... a company like that should not be giving us "something"...they should be giving us "THE thing"


i don't believe i'm being too harsh on this issue. this company has experienced too much and knows too much to be failing so successfully. it's about time we, the users, see some indisputable programing and options.

 

[Darician]

When I said something, I meant if a driver is provided built-in to Windows 7, then something is better than nothing. As far as the manufacturer, yes, they should develop a full driver but they probably won't because there's no real money incentive for them to do so.

 

[Petey7]

Dude or Dudette with the really long name, you do realize that the drivers are made by the hard ware manufacturers, not MS right? The drivers availability through Windows Updates is partially dependent on those hardware manufacturers. The drivers built into Windows and available through Windows Updates are meant to get the basic devices to at least function. It is the responsibility of the owner to find the correct drivers for their computers, not Microsofts. At least with Windows 7 most if not all hardware will function to some degree immediately after install. After reinstalling XP, most devices will not function properly, if at all.

For example, when installing XP on my computer, the display shows at a low resolution 4:3 aspect ratio and neither network adapter works, nor does sound, the memory card reader, or most devices I plug into the USB port. If not for the disc that came with the computer that has the drivers, the computer would be basically unusable. With 7, the proper display driver from Intel is installed and the resolution is automatically set to the maximum my screen can do. But, the driver that is installed is old, and has to be replaced to get some functions to work. Matter of fact, everything works pretty well, but to get full functionality and guarantee no BSOD I have to hunt down and install all the appropriate drivers. Any thing I plug into the USB port automatically starts working, unless it is some really old or unusual device.

 

[PeteC]

I find the driver "issue" to be one of the most complained about "shortcomings" for pretty much every OS. Unfortunately, you can not continually improve and evolve an OS while maintaining 100% compatibility with the past...that would hamstring developments and improvements to far too serious a degree.

As mentioned, hardware manufacturers are ultimately responsible for what their product will work with, and particularly for older gear, there may be insufficient incentive (financially) for them to continue to develop and release new drivers. Further, many hardware manufacturers actually woul prefer folks to eventually move on and purchase newer versions of their hardware anyways, and may deliberately decide to abandon support for newer OS's. For example, HP generally will have drivers for any given printer that carry across at least several versions of windows, but eventually, there will be models that they simply no longer develop drivers for the next generation windows OS. Hard to fault MS for HP's marketing decisions, yes?

At the same time, it is in any OS maker's best interest to attempt to retain compatibility with as wide a hardware set as possible, and to their credit, MS spends much time and energy informing major hardware makers of the parameters of their OS to make hardware compliance with the OS as easy as possible.

Win 7 has a wider database of device driver compatibility than with almost any of their previous versions, but there is no such thing as 100% device compatibility. The PC universe is simply far too varied for that to occur, and even Apple, with a much more single-source approach has never been able to make that claim with subsequent OS releases either.

 

[CarlTR6]

Well stated, Pete.

 

[Layback Bear]

I think what Petey7 is saying, Windows 7 has been better than previous Windows operating system when it comes to loading drivers to get your computer up and running. At that point it's my job to go to the manufactures web sit and check for updated driver, i.e. Nvidia. If I'm wrong, well just smack me.

 

[Petey7]

I think what Petey7 is saying, Windows 7 has been better than previous Windows operating system when it comes to loading drivers to get your computer up and running. At that point it's my job to go to the manufactures web sit and check for updated driver, i.e. Nvidia. If I'm wrong, well just smack me.

Thats exactly what I'm saying. I'll give another example. When I first load up windows 7 after a clean install, the speakers work. But, after finding the Sigmatel audio drivers, the speakers sound a little better and my mic works too. The driver also gives me a couple of extra features the default Windows drivers don't. If the sound didn't work at all, yeah, I'd feel a more urgent need to find the drivers, but with Windows 7 default drivers, I can listen to music while looking for the newest drivers.

Also, just as a general tip. It is a good idea to backup all driver installers to an external hard drive or a CD. That way, if you need to do a clean install for whatever reason, you already have all the drivers you need.