Vista/xp apps/drivers compatible with windows 7?

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bit4bit

New Member
Hi, I can get windows 7 for free from my UNI, and am wondering whether to get it or keep with vista/XP. The only thing stopping me is whether all my device drivers, applications and games will be compatible with windows 7, or whether I will at least be able to run them in 'compatibility mode' with xp or Vista. If so, I'll get it.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks alot
 
Windows 7 has a generic driver for most of its devices. You will not need an ethernet, video or most other drivers. I have installed it on now 19 computers and never needed to download a driver afterwards. Just after you install run windows update and that will find if you are missing any.
 
ProxyRepair said:
Windows 7 has a generic driver for most of its devices. You will not need an ethernet, video or most other drivers. I have installed it on now 19 computers and never needed to download a driver afterwards. Just after you install run windows update and that will find if you are missing any.
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So I don't even need to manually install any drivers at all?? Windows will automatically find and install drivers? I cant understand how it can have a generic driver...surely a graphics card needs a different driver than a mouse for example??

Also what about my Vista and xp compatible applications?
 
bit4bit said:
So I don't even need to manually install any drivers at all?? Windows will automatically find and install drivers? I cant understand how it can have a generic driver...surely a graphics card needs a different driver than a mouse for example??

Also what about my Vista and xp compatible applications?
Click to expand...

@ProxyRepair- I'm pretty sure it does not have "generic drivers". Windows Update searches for driver updates and installs them...
It's not 100% guaranteed that you will not manually have to install drivers, but Windows Update on Win7 is a great tool and it installed all drivers automatically for me.

And for your second question, I have not had a problem, yet with any Vista apps. Everything works as it should.
 
Stoic Sentinel said:
@ProxyRepair- I'm pretty sure it does not have "generic drivers". Windows Update searches for driver updates and installs them...
It's not 100% guaranteed that you will not manually have to install drivers, but Windows Update on Win7 is a great tool and it installed all drivers automatically for me.

And for your second question, I have not had a problem, yet with any Vista apps. Everything works as it should.
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Yeah well it practically has 95% of drivers built into the installer :)
 
Last edited:
ProxyRepair said:
Yeah well it practically has 95% of drivers built into the installer :)
Click to expand...

In a way, sort of.

After/During install, Windows 7 scans your hardware and downloads the latest drivers (that Microsoft has) and installs them for you automatically.

Microsoft doesn't always have the most recent drivers, but it's likely the ones they install will work.

They are not "generic" drivers either, they are specific to your hardware.
 
As for application issues i have been using windows 7 for almost 2 months and have come accross only a few compatibilty issues that have been resovled by using the 'run in compatibilty mode' option, these programs were quite old though.
 
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