Will Windows XP Drivers Work on Vista?
Windows XP is one of the most popular operating systems in use today. When Microsoft released Windows Vista a smaller number of customers than forecast opted to purchase this product. One main concern was whether the many hardware drivers that were designed to work with Windows XP would be made available for Vista as well as whether there would be support for the enormous amount of installed hardware that was already flawlessly functioning with XP.
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Initial Testing
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During the testing phase prior to the release of Windows Vista, the Microsoft Windows development teams noticed that there were an usually high number of installation issues for various drivers being reported by the automated Windows Error Reporting Service. These error reports noted that the packaging of the various drivers for Windows XP as well as for Windows Vista differed and as such each would not be compatible with the other operating system.
Compatibility
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In the many tests that were conducted during the Vista pre-release phase it was noted that the Windows XP drivers were not compatible with those required by Vista. Most of the compatibility issues surfaced when Microsoft Vista was loaded onto Windows XP system as an upgrade. In these situations the display settings and Windows audio would oftentimes not function correctly. While the monitor did come on and a display was visible the refresh rate and screen resolution were incorrect. The primary reason for this was that the newer driver versions that are required by Vista did not load and the Windows XP drivers were used instead.
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Software applications
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Another issue to be noted is that the number of hardware peripheral devices which became unusable under Microsoft Vista due to the software driver incompatibility. The installation of any drivers other than one that was created specifically for Vista for a particular printer or scanner usually resulted in the device not functioning in the required manner. It should be noted that some of the standard compatibility modes might work -- but businesses are usually not comfortable investing on solutions that "might" work.
Custom Design
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One of the greatest problems of using various applications and other installers on Vista is that many of these applications have been designed to work with a particular operating system such as Windows Windows 2000/XP or in many cases Windows Millennium/Win98. Specifically, because of the change in folder locations that Vista made many software package installers had to be rewritten so as to ensure that the software would install correctly. As a result, the installers needed to be completely rewritten to become compatible with any newer operating systems.
Workarounds
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Microsoft Windows makes use of a different type of technique to ensure any compatibility for plug and play devices such as USB devices. The Microsoft development team has written software programs called "shims" which are meant for different types of applications so as to fool them into working properly on Windows Vista. In many cases these shims have prolonged the working life of various pieces of hardware but should not be counted on to work magic.
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