Windows Vista comes with more drivers ready to go than any other version of Windows, and you can download plenty more from the Windows Update website as you need them. If you can’t find your driver CD, letting Windows Update do a search for you may actually prove useful at last.

   
      A screenshot linked to the Windows Vista Blog article

At the Windows Vista Team Blog, Jim Allchin, the Chief of Microsoft’s Vista development effort and long-time Microsoft employee, soon to retire after having completed Vista at last, has advised readers that Windows Vista has more drivers built-in at launch than any previous version Windows.

While computer users will always want to see if the manufacturer has newer, specific drivers that eke out the best performance from peripherals and hardware add-ons, having as many drivers native in Windows as possible, and thousands of additional new drivers available on Windows Update just has to be a good thing to make life easier for computer users long used to having driver issues with XP and earlier Windows versions.

Allchin tells us that since Vista went RTM, an addition 11,700 drivers are now ready and waiting for you if you add a new peripheral to your computer, although you should naturally always try loading the drivers that came with your new hardware from CD first.

Additional advice that he dispenses is to always make sure to check the Windows Updates, and if there are any, to definitely download them. Better still, just set all of this to automatic, and elect to receive recommended updates too (instead of just critical/essential ones).

Basically the message is not to be surprised to find updates available and/or already downloading. Vista will also use the Windows Update service to fix any issues, major or minor, that are yet to be discovered in Vista as it reaches consumers en-masse.

In contrast, Windows XP only had 10,000 drivers on its CD, with only 2000 on the Windows Update service, so this is a major improvement. Vista certainly needs it, as the RC1 and RC2 versions still had issues with certain types of hardware, but reports that I’ve read indicate that most, if not almost all, of those issues have been resolved.

And now that Vista has indeed reached RTM stage at last, there’s no more excuse for manufacturers who haven’t yet updated their broadband wireless cards or other devices. The Vista using world is watching you and not so patiently waiting for those who haven’t yet released new drivers.

Our firm message to you: hurry up! Don’t keep us waiting for drivers or we will not be saying good things about you to our friends and family who come to us for advice on which products we recommend.

After all, if we can’t use a product ourselves because of a driver issue, well… that says everything right there. But as I’m personally still yet to get the final RTM, and I will be getting it soon, I can’t report on my own driver experiences yet. My RC1 version of Vista has problems with the soundcard, but as I explained earlier I’ve read reports that this has been solved. Thank goodness!

Allchin has also advised that the driver update and Windows Vista update process will continue with new drivers and updates appearing on a very regular basis, meaning that Vista will continue getting better as time goes by.

There’s no word on whether or not they’ll be able to extend the driver update service for Windows XP users, so they get access to a larger base of drivers, but I suspect they’ll be mostly focusing on Vista for the future – they do want you to upgrade, after all.

Nevertheless, the wealth of new and easily accessible drivers is great news for all Vista users, and it’s good to see that Microsoft is making Windows Update really useful at last.

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