NVidia and MS get something right

[VirtualLarry]

This was going to be a rant about how Windows 7 doesn't support the AGP FX5900XT video card, but a funny thing happened. Selecting "Update driver", and then selecting "Find Automatically", well, amazing as shit, it actually worked and found a specific FX5900 driver for Windows 7, thus allowing my friend with a slightly older rig to continue to play Warhammer Online on Windows 7.

Things like this that actually work out "automatically" scare me a little. I don't think that I've ever had sucess with MS's automatic internet driver finding before.

Hopefully, that FX5900 driver will be included in the in-the-box drivers when Windows 7 goes Gold.

 

[Barfo]

Slightly older? :laugh:

 

[postmortemIA]

I think this would work for Vista as well, and perhaps for XP too, nothing new, perhaps works lil better.

 

[hans030390]

Vista was pretty good about finding drivers for various internal and external devices, even if it had to look online. XP, on the other hand, is pretty behind. You're very likely to have to install the drivers yourself for, say, a printer. Not on Vista or Windows 7. And yes, you can get video drivers...generally even just through Windows Update, but they're never up-to-date.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: hans030390
Vista was pretty good about finding drivers for various internal and external devices, even if it had to look online. XP, on the other hand, is pretty behind. You're very likely to have to install the drivers yourself for, say, a printer. Not on Vista or Windows 7. And yes, you can get video drivers...generally even just through Windows Update, but they're never up-to-date.

Actually, both Nvidia and AMD have been pretty good at keeping up to date WHQL drivers available on WU in the past year or so. They usually post within a week of release now so if you can live without the fluff, like Physx then it is a pretty good way for people to keep these drivers up to date.

 

[MadRat]

I have had success sporadically with the online update with oem machines. Sometimes it finds the most obscure drivers whereas the manufacturer's own drivers might not work. Other times it is completely worthless.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: MadRat
I have had success sporadically with the online update with oem machines. Sometimes it finds the most obscure drivers whereas the manufacturer's own drivers might not work. Other times it is completely worthless.

That's been my experience also. It's always a crap shoot, but worth a try.

 

[zerocool84]

I just find it funny about running the latest OS with ancient hardware.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
This was going to be a rant about how Windows 7 doesn't support the AGP FX5900XT video card, but a funny thing happened. Selecting "Update driver", and then selecting "Find Automatically", well, amazing as shit, it actually worked and found a specific FX5900 driver for Windows 7, thus allowing my friend with a slightly older rig to continue to play Warhammer Online on Windows 7.

Things like this that actually work out "automatically" scare me a little. I don't think that I've ever had sucess with MS's automatic internet driver finding before.

Hopefully, that FX5900 driver will be included in the in-the-box drivers when Windows 7 goes Gold.

i found that all drivers for windows 7 come and update via the windows update... and in fact i corrupted my win7 install (beta 7000) by trying to manually install a driver .

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm a step behind Windows 7 at the moment, but I've had . . . certain . . . "experiences" . . .

XP Windows-Update would present a list containing occasional hardware drivers for my given hardware configuration.

If I had set it up for "Express" installation and automatic installation, these drivers would've been installed.

What we found, with my sister-in-law's system and mine, and especially -- what we discovered with her desire for "Express" installation -- was that Windows would grab a driver for the "SB Live!" PCI audio card I had installed in her system, and it would stop working.

Since then, I had told my brother to follow my practice: "Get the driver updates from the manufacturer of the hardware! Don't do that 'Express' installation, so that at least, you can pick and choose from the listing. For some folks, picking and choosing is a stressful chore -- they say "I don't know what to do-oo!!"

So it's good to see that Windows 7 (and VISTA as well) are more robust in these respects.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
I'm a step behind Windows 7 at the moment, but I've had . . . certain . . . "experiences" . . .

XP Windows-Update would present a list containing occasional hardware drivers for my given hardware configuration.

If I had set it up for "Express" installation and automatic installation, these drivers would've been installed.

What we found, with my sister-in-law's system and mine, and especially -- what we discovered with her desire for "Express" installation -- was that Windows would grab a driver for the "SB Live!" PCI audio card I had installed in her system, and it would stop working.

Since then, I had told my brother to follow my practice: "Get the driver updates from the manufacturer of the hardware! Don't do that 'Express' installation, so that at least, you can pick and choose from the listing. For some folks, picking and choosing is a stressful chore -- they say "I don't know what to do-oo!!"

So it's good to see that Windows 7 (and VISTA as well) are more robust in these respects.

Setting Automatic Updates to install updates automatically or selecting the Express option from the Windows Update site will only install Critical Updates. AFAIK, driver updates are never marked as "Critical" by Windows Update.