One of the biggest headaches of Windows Vista’s early release days was the incompatibility of many existing device drivers. This was especially a problem for sound card and video adapters, many of which had no drivers compatible with Windows Vista. For uncountable new computers users, the inability to get their video adapters and sound cards to work under Windows Vista created a demand for Microsoft to continue Windows XP – which had excellent driver support – indefinitely. Eventually, Microsoft and device manufacturers did catch up on the appropriate support, and most video and sound card devices do have Windows Vista-compatible versions.

Enter Windows 7. After the Vista debacle, there has been a great deal of speculation and concern about how whether new Windows 7 users were going to face the same difficulties with device drivers. The answer is – evidently not. It seems that Microsoft – and the makers of various audio and video cards – learned their lessons with the Windows Vista release. This time around, driver support for most hardware appears to be mature and robust. This is due to a couple of factors.

First, Windows 7 builds heavily on the Vista framework. MS engineers sifted through and kept that which works while discarding and reworking the biggest problems with Vista. The result is a new operating system that retains most of the good things and advances of Vista while fixing the problems that turned users off. Among the things that Microsoft kept – the compatibility with Windows Vista device drivers that grew over the life of the Vista operating system.

The second, furthermore perhaps more vital, point is that major audio and video card manufacturers also learned their lesson. Rather than assume that Microsoft would ensure backward compatibility with device drivers, manufacturers like Nvidia, which makes video cards and adapters, worked closely with the Microsoft Windows 7 development team to ensure that their products would be supported under the new operating system.

The result has been that most video, audio and other devices are well-supported under Windows 7. Many devices will run perfectly well with the old XP device drivers, even under Windows 7, as well as the Vista drivers will support nearly all hardware under Windows 7. Finally, Microsoft and hardware manufacturers are actively making updated drivers available through Windows Update.

If you upgrade your computer to Windows 7 and are having difficulty with a device driver, your first step should be the Windows Update site, especially if the devices are from Nvidia or Intel. Chances are that you’ll find any non-generic drivers that you need for your audio and video devices on site.