XP only Devices won't work under Windows 7

[NormCameron]

“Good luck finding drivers for all your old XP-only hardware.” Over the past few months, I’ve installed and used Windows 7 on a dozen separate systems, representing a wide range in hardware capability and all sorts of different form factors. Virtually every one of those systems had also run Windows Vista at some point in its lab lifecycle, which made it easy for me to track down the best drivers for each subsystem and peripheral.
Over the course of the last two years, I’ve discarded or replaced a handful of devices that didn’t work at all with Vista: several network cards, some storage adapters, a scanner, a TV tuner. In every case, I had to replace the unsupported part or do without. The good news is that the driver model for Windows 7 is identical to that of Windows Vista, so all the hardware I now own (and all the drivers I’ve bookmarked and saved) will work on upgraded systems.
So, what happens to people who decided to skip Vista and stick with XP, for whatever reason? They get to face those exact same issues. If your device doesn’t have a driver for Windows Vista, it will not work under Windows 7. Period. Full stop.


Five things Steve Ballmer won’t tell you about Windows 7 | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

 

[garysgold]

Thanks, Norm.

I'm sure will hear plenty of complaints from folks who avoided Vista, but upgrade to Seven. Both hardware and software.

Gary

 

[johngalt]

And, again, hear the rash of compaints against M$ when in fact it is their HW Manufacturer's problem because they are the one abandoning their hardware....

 

[ze7en]

I find pretty much find the opposite.

I do have XP only hardware and drivers, and what I find is that 16bit is out. but 32 is fine.

If carefully used, not rushing through the "Win7 Compatibility Mode" tool, you can set in proprietary XP drivers, maybe not the associated software, since a lot of that is based on running on 256 color, in case of problems, and extending upward to 16, 24, or 32 bit color. As you know, that anyone using a lower OS than Vista has experienced 16 and 256 color modes, whether they wanted to or not. These same issues effect other areas too.

For the most part, I find that W7 excels in compatibility with hardware over Vista and XP, although I do agree it is not an out of the box un-inhibited install in every configuration.

But it is the quickest fully installed OS, comparing by technology levels, like win1 2 or 3 on a 286, and 95 or 98 on 386 or 486, so how we rate them depends on our experience level. If you go back as far as I do, 2k base and back before bread boarding a simple computer, if you wanted to have one, on through the development of today's options, your impressed in many ways. What I've seen so far with w7, seeing how well it handles things, I am willing to do more than just sample it...