Vista to Win7, same drivers?

[JTsyo]

I have a Vista laptop that's due for a wipe. If I put Win7 on it. Will the same drivers work or will I need Win7 drivers? The computer just came with recovery disks so it's not even Vista DVD that's available.

 

[yinan]

Yes

 

[abekl]

In most cases, yes, the same drivers will work, so long as you are going from 32-bit to 32-bit or 64-bit to 64-bit. You can also check the manufacturers Downloads section for your computer model, and all the drivers for Win 7 will be listed there, if you want to double check to be sure.

 

[JTsyo]

alright thanks guys.

 

[Barfo]

Just let Windows Update install the latest drivers for you.

 

[corkyg]

I did a direct upgrade of Vista to 7 on a Lenovo T60 laptop, and the result was perfect. Not a problem with any of the laptop's drivers or features. All apps were correctly installed and no data was lost.

 

[Maverick6969]

Just let Windows Update install the latest drivers for you.

The OP said he's is going to "wipe" the hard drive. I assume he's going to format. Using Windows updates for compatible Win 7 driver is probably a bad idea. The first thing to do after installing the OS is to install the chipset driver - which in some cases is going to include the NIC driver. So how do you suppose the OP is going to get online to do his "update"?

Also don't trust the microsoft update feature to always provide the most recent up to date driver - especially for something important as the motherboard. I NEVER use that feature to "update" a driver unless there is absolutely no other way. Either go directly on the manufacturer's website to grab the latest one or if they don't have a windows 7 driver available, depending on the device that I'm trying to install - I may try a Vista driver.

 

[Maverick6969]

I have a Vista laptop that's due for a wipe. If I put Win7 on it. Will the same drivers work or will I need Win7 drivers? The computer just came with recovery disks so it's not even Vista DVD that's available.

Trying to install a Vista driver on a Win 7 system will not always work in my experience. Especially with chipset drivers that are digitally signed as Vista only. On PCI cards & such, I don't think you'll have a problem though.

 

[ViRGE]

The OP said he's is going to "wipe" the hard drive. I assume he's going to format. Using Windows updates for compatible Win 7 driver is probably a bad idea. The first thing to do after installing the OS is to install the chipset driver - which in some cases is going to include the NIC driver. So how do you suppose the OP is going to get online to do his "update"?

Also don't trust the microsoft update feature to always provide the most recent up to date driver - especially for something important as the motherboard. I NEVER use that feature to "update" a driver unless there is absolutely no other way. Either go directly on the manufacturer's website to grab the latest one or if they don't have a windows 7 driver available, depending on the device that I'm trying to install - I may try a Vista driver.

Although we're getting on a bit of a tangent, Windows Update is fine for most driver updates. The only useful drivers not published on it are AMD and Intel's advanced storage drivers for AHCI. Most other chipset "drivers" are merely INF files to help the OS identify specific components, which means they only need to be installed once.

As a power user the only thing I manually update regularly are my video drivers, and if we're talking about Intel Graphics even that's not necessary since Intel doesn't have a rapid driver publishing schedule. For everything else Windows Update does a reasonable job.

 

[Maverick6969]

Although we're getting on a bit of a tangent, Windows Update is fine for most driver updates. The only useful drivers not published on it are AMD and Intel's advanced storage drivers for AHCI. Most other chipset "drivers" are merely INF files to help the OS identify specific components, which means they only need to be installed once.

As a power user the only thing I manually update regularly are my video drivers, and if we're talking about Intel Graphics even that's not necessary since Intel doesn't have a rapid driver publishing schedule. For everything else Windows Update does a reasonable job.

I completely disagree. It may do a "reasonable" job but I would not trust Microsoft to offer the most recent updated drivers. That is the whole point. If one is doing an upgrade to Windows 7, Microsoft in most cases does not offer the latest hardware driver. It's not a high priority item for hardware vendors to send their latest drivers to microsoft when they can just throw it up on their own server for people to download. Why not get it directly from the hardware manufacturer's website?

Most other chipset "drivers" are merely INF files to help the OS identify specific components, which means they only need to be installed once.

Unless the OP meant something entirely different, I believe he's going to quote: "wipe" the hard drive meaning a format/fresh isntall. He will need to re-install his chipset driver whether it's vista/Win7.