Yesterday, MSNBC.com put up an article about Vista drivers in which I made an appearance (see Page 2). I was really surprised to see that it made it to the top of MSNBC's front page this morning. Woo hoo! If you're new to the site, thanks for clicking through. :)
So, been having driver issues with Windows Vista? Join the club. While Microsoft prides itself on compatibility with older programs, drivers for peripherals have always been an issue. While it may be quick and easy to blame Microsoft for this problem, they have made some improvements that make the situation a bit more bearable, though you may not even realize it. And the MSNBC article, while very good, didn't cover those changes.
The best example of that is the new Windows Error Reporting system. You've been able to send system crash data to Microsoft before, but did you know that Vista reports every missing/failed driver installation back to Microsoft for analysis? While containing no personally-identifiable information, the report contains the unique hardware ID of the device Vista can't find a driver for. That way, Microsoft can see which missing drivers their customers are using, and put pressure on the vendors to provide one. If/when the vendor does put out a new driver, Microsoft (usually) adds it to the Windows Update driver catalog, and your computer will be updated the next time Vista checks back with Microsoft for updates.
Speaking of Windows Update, Microsoft didn't use to put that many driver on there. In the past, you had to rummage around the Internet for the right driver, and many vendors didn't go a great job of making drivers readily accessible on their websites. That's why websites like DriverGuide.com got so popular.
The flipside of the availability issue is driver stability. While even some of the existing Vista drivers don't fully take advantage of these features, Microsoft rewrote many aspects of Windows Vista to make sure that if something goes wrong with your hardware, it won't completely take down your system. For example, Microsoft found that most of the Blue Screens on Windows stem from bad video card drivers. So Microsoft changed how video is handled in Vista, so that even if there is a problem, (in most cases) it can reset the card without toppling your system like a house of cards. And that's just one example.
So while there is no denying that the situation is still frustrating, Microsoft made improvements to the overall driver infrastructure whose impact won't be fully realized for another several months. These improvements will then carry-through to the next version of Windows, where hopefully the situation will improve even more.
All that information still not helping your situation? Share your Vista driver story here. I'd love to hear what others are experiencing with the new OS. And, if you're new here, have a look around, and let me know how to make the site better.