Listing of Vista Drivers

RadarSync writes to plug their page of links to Vista drivers. Listed are many drivers that Microsoft doesn't have and that aren't easily found on the manufacturer's sites. For Intel alone, 364 drivers are currently linked.

Can become outdated fast

The site is a good idea in theory but I would not recommend anyone to a site like this one for fear that they could be downloading outdated drivers since the manufactures site lists the current ones anyway. Its really not that hard to find drivers for your hardware from the manufactures site anyway and its not like this site lists anything out of the ordinary or hard to find.

Re:Can become outdated fast

the problem is right now that these can't be found. And, they may be linking to pages that are updated themselves.

so, whent he problem that they cant be found is outdated, you wont have to go to this site anyways. i dont think this is intended to do anything but address the current problem.

Re:Can become outdated fast

While I hate Windows, I actually wish this problem was not so easy for Microsoft to solve. Since they are signing all drivers, they could just determine device's PCI/USB/etc signature and fetch the driver from their website. The problem is that now all the hardware in the world can only be created with Microsoft's approval, which is way too much control for a single company.

Re:Can become outdated fast

Its really not that hard to find drivers for your hardware from the manufactures site anyway

I would see that to be the case when buying whole systems from HP, Dell, Etc. Just as much the same if you buy Brand name parts all the time. But when you work on machines for people who go cheaper and buy off-brand name equipment, then you start spending Hours looking for a driver for their sound card. Also, as another Comment said here, This list appears to serve to point out a problem with the OS than a way for Consumers to easily find Drivers.

Re:Can become outdated fast

I updated my friends desktop (HP Pavillion) with Vista. There were no drivers for AC'97! They got to be joking!
At least HP has shown they care and I was able to download them from their site. Plus ATI drivers that hardly worked, and some minor problems with WIFI (detected as something totally different, but worked!).
I had less problems with Mandriva on my new laptop. Everything worked out of the box. Including Compiz and Xgl.

Re:Can become outdated fast

Windows Vista: stealing the pretty GUI crap from Gnome, KDE, and OSX, but leaving out useful shit like apt and yum

Good news for competition

This is good news for Linux and OS X. Installing Drivers is so 1998.

Re:Good news for competition

This is good news for Linux and OS X. Installing Drivers is so 1998.

Yes, because no one ever has trouble getting a wifi card to work under Linux. Or printer drivers working under OSX. In fact, surprising though it may be to you, getting drivers to work is often one of the biggest difficulties of installing Linux. And sure, OSX comes with drivers for all the Apple hardware, but if you have some weird piece of proprietary hardware, there is a good possibility you won't ever find a driver for it.

As for Windows Vista, I hope it falls on it's face or at least loses 30% market share, leaving the rest for OSX, linux, openbsd, solaris, and a beautiful world of open standards and interoperability. Or at least giving people more freedom to leave windows if they need to.

Re:Good news for competition

However, the point is, many distros, such as Ubuntu, require 0 drivers to install (depending on your hardware).

Do you have any idea how ironic this sentence is? OF COURSE it depends on your hardware! I bet you could find a hardware configuration that will work completely off Vista's native driver cache as well, especially if you're happy with vanilla video and sound support.

On my desktop the only drivers I would have had to install were video drivers if I wanted 3d acceleration.

Anymore 3D acceleration is pretty much a must-have. Especially with newfangled things like Aero and XGL becoming the norm. Even basic tasks like moving windows around perform much, much better with acceleration.

(certainly it's more difficult than OS X)

I bet if Microsoft made all their own hardware and then locked people into only using Vista on said hardware, it would be easy as pie to get Vista configured for the hardware. What an idea! Except, of course, that the whole idea behind the PC is open hardware standards, vendor competition, and consumer choice.

Honestly, the way Windows (and Linux to a large extent, though it's vendor base is significantly smaller than Windows) manages to interoperate with hundreds of thousands of different vendor's drivers is pretty impressive. It's one thing to claim stability when 95% consumer configurations are identical to your test bench, it's another to have no idea what kind of cheap crazy crap consumers will install and still have comparable stability.

Something's missing...

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any printer drivers. The rest of the stuff seems fairly straight-forward to get, but printer drivers I think have been the bane of everyone's upgrade experience since Windows 98 or earlier. Thank goodness for hplip [sourceforge.net]. However, that won't help me much when I start getting friends and family asking me to upgrade their computers to Vista despite all my year-old warnings. That'll be my cue to sit back smugly and laugh at them.

In any event, I'm sure there are many that will find this aggregation useful.

challenging period

From the site: "This FREE page lists the latest Windows Vista drivers and provides direct links to the files for downloads. We're offering this as a free service to the community, to help you all get through this challenging period of Vista-transitioning."

But all the links go to store.apple.com

I don't get it.

Drivers, Vista, Just Works (tm)

This was just one of my gripes with Vista (the pre-release) was it would not recognise either of my network cards! The XP drivers didn't work with it either.

The site may work better with a search function and/or a listing by hardware. Windows people without the necessary drivers may be confused by the text names.

MIcrosoft not involved?

Why does it seem to me that Microsoft couldn't care less about vista. Vista has compatibility problems out the wazoo, and microsoft won't even host drivers on their web page.

Nice idea, BUT...

Why aren't these drivers listed alphabetically? http://www.radarsync.com/vista/vista_more.php?resu lt=0 [radarsync.com] And no search feature?

Never mind Vista Drivers

I've just spent two days trying to get XP working on a HP notebook that arrived here with Vista preinstalled. We can't and won't use Vista (no Novell support, and you wouldn't use an only-just-released OS in a corporate environment anyway), but the HP site doesn't offer any XP drivers for it's current models. Hunted around and managed to get drivers for most things, but the nvidia driver refuses to work...

I understand that M$ has forced the Vista install on vendors, but I don't understand why they can't make the rollback to XP an option for those of us that want/need it.

Re:Never mind Vista Drivers

Hunted around and managed to get drivers for most things, but the nvidia driver refuses to work...

Don't blame HP for that one. Blame nVidia's insistence that OEMs support mobile chipsets with their own "official" drivers (which the likes of HP/Compaq and Dell never keep up to date, of course). The thing is, mobile chipsets are generally no different from their desktop counterparts when it comes to drivers. For nVidia drivers, check out LaptopVideo2Go.com [laptopvideo2go.com]. For ATi, try DH Mod tool [driverheaven.net]. In either case, the "problem" is that the inf for the drivers don't contain the right information to detect mobile chipsets, even though the drivers will work just fine on them. The "fix" is to hack the inf so that the installers will allow you to apply the drivers to your mobile card.

Re:Never mind Vista Drivers

In either case, the "problem" is that the inf for the drivers don't contain the right information to detect mobile chipsets, even though the drivers will work just fine on them. The "fix" is to hack the inf so that the installers will allow you to apply the drivers to your mobile card.

That's right. Just to add a bit on: I get the latest nVidia drivers working on my notebook by unpacking both the recent executable and the one on the CD-ROM supplied with the notebook with 7-zip, copying the .inf file across, and then running the setup utility.

Vista Drivers Page Necessary?

Why do third parties even need to complile these lists? Shoudln't Microsoft be on top of this?

Re:Vista Drivers Page Necessary?

Soon, when Vista gets as many drivers as linux already has, perhaps Vista will be ready for the desktop!

--jeffk++

Tip for Vista users

You don't need this drivers page, all you need is to disable those pesky security dialogs and go surf the web for a while. Be sure to click "Yes" or "OK" on any messages that pop up. Pretty soon, everything you need to run Vista will be downloaded and installed on your machine automatically!

Beta and XP drivers in many entries

Some of the entries point to Beta drivers. They should at least make a note on the website that the drivers are not final. Many of the drivers are XP drivers (the ZIP file contains WinXP in its name).

Users are better off just going directly to the manufacturer's websites. If drivers are Beta they may not find them easily, but at least they'll be warned. And if there's no Vista driver they won't download an XP driver and try to use it without warning.

Google Cache

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:YltYVhNTm0gJ:w ww.radarsync.com/vista/+http://www.radarsync.com/v ista/&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=f irefox-a [72.14.203.104]

Google Cache: you know, since I can't see the page anymore, maybe some of you can't either.

//no html skilz

Manufacture specific

Be careful, alot of these are manufacture specific, example: the Atheros drivers. I've been hoping to find some Atheros drivers that work in Vista on the Macbook that include a newer version of their Client software (old versions have all options greyed out), but the drivers on this site are for either IBM or Fujitsu laptops. Also keep in mind that many companies, like Atheros, don't release their own drivers publicly and instead rely on the hardware manufacture to maintain them.

Like Linux 10 years ago

The simple fact that they can hope to list all drivers for a Windows platform speaks a lot of the state of Vista hardware support.

Wonder when we get www.vistaprinting.org, www.vistawireless.org, www.vista-laptop.net ...

I see you are going to look for drivers on Vista

Are you sure you want to visit this page?

I see you are about to install the driver? Are you really really sure?

32 bit only?

I took a quick look at the list of drivers on the site, and it looks like a collection of x86 drivers designed for XP. What about 64 bit drivers? -- Louarnkoz

This Vista Driver Site runs on Linux/Apache :)

According to Netcraft the RadarSync site runs on Apache/2.0.40 Red Hat Linux:

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:/ /www.radarsync.com [netcraft.com]

Sorry, but I think there's been an oversite

There's no indication whether the drivers are 32-bit or 64-bit - surely the drivers themselves are not cross-compatible?

Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

F_T

Whoever is crazy enough to download drivers

Whoever is crazy enough to download drivers from places linked to by this site?

I mean, all good intentions aside, but drivers are binary files, it's rediculous enough that most of them aren't digitally signed even when downloaded from the original manufacturer. But explain why exactly this site is sending us to "files.3dnews.ru" to download ATI drivers???

Shit, I can't even come up with a hooker/unprotected sex analogy that's silly enough to describe this.

In any case, if this is the way for Vista customers to get their new purchase to work, then yeah, glory days for Linux ahead...

Idiots

Apparently, listing the drivers in alphabetical order is beyond the limited mental capacity of the idiot running that site. So I had to scroll through 6 pages of randomly listed drivers just so I could find out that the one I was looking for isn't there.

Thanks for nothing.

I'm glad this is finally out...

At last we have a list of these vista drivers! There is nothing more dangerous than people driving around, not paying attention and looking off in to the distance! Now you can tell if your neighbor or one of your family members is a vista driver. People that drive like this are a traffic hazard and a menace to society! Why, just the other day, I was driving to work and beside me was someone - not paying attention - looking off into the dist...
What? what do you mean? oh... not those drivers? Vista is a what? Oh. ok. Sorry. I use a Mac. I didn't know...

...
Nevermind.

Certainly sounds good for Microsoft

Apparently, they need all the help they can get with Vista, particularly in light of the advancements of Linux, BSD (& OSX), Solaris, etc.

Well somebody has to say it...

I for one embrace our new Windows Vista driver download site overlords. Me clicky clicky

Doesn't work for Logitech QuickCam

I just tried using those drivers for a Logitech QuickCam, but it still wouldn't install. I also tried going through Logitech's site and getting the Vista x64 drivers; still didn't work.

Re:Windows Update

Homebrew machines are where you would expect it to work relatively well - at least that has been my experience with Windows Update and drivers. Where you run into trouble is with more proprietary hardware - on my Dell laptop, for instance, I have yet to find a driver update on Windows Update, despite the fact that Dell comes out with them periodically.

On laptops, I've run into a few cases where the laptop manufacturer (or mainboard manufacturer, later to be packed into a laptop) has taken a device, and changed the PCI ID by one number without changing ANYTHING in hardware, specifically so the "regular" driver for that piece of hardware wouldn't install without some hacking.

Re:Get off your high-horses

no master dojo expert here... I'm teaching myself xhtml. I don't have any issues for hardware that has linux drivers written for it (video cards) and most of the hardware worked out of the box despite the lack of specific drivers. No problem upgrading to the latest verison kernel. Linux runs on more configurations than Vista will ever hope to. There will be more machines that will have Vista on it, but linux will be capable (as always) of running on it.

Every major release since 2004 of suse, ubuntu, mandrake, and knoppix have all run out of the cd with my machines (3) so far. I too have had to upgrade my nvidia drivers to have reasonably a good display, but I've had to do that with XP and Vista too. Vista also couldn't use either of my network cards, printer and scanner didn't work but drivers were available for download. Not so for the network cards. The difference? I can't see any logical reason to pay a company for software to not work with my computer, restricting my ability to use my computer as I wish.

My brother bought a Dell and has had no end of trouble. This on hardware "designed" for Vista. Don't be a mug, don't pay for beta.

The only difference being that with Vista the situation WILL improve over time, not sure the same can be said for the next version of UBER-GIJoe Linux or whatever the current popular flavour is are you?

Yes. I am sure the next version of n linux will improve over time. Hence my testimonial. I believe in open source philosophy, be that in linux/bsd/plan9/solaris/etc. I believe variety makes a better world than monopoly. I will learn/preach/teach open source until I am persuaded of a better path. More than likely I won't pay more than $70 for it.

Re:Driver?

As a Macintosh user, I have to ask, what's a driver?

Usually binary code that determines how a computer will communicate with a peripheral device.

The lack of them on OS X (not drivers, but certain drivers that come with the OS) is the reason why so many peripheral devices have a warning label saying something similar to "Not compatible with Macintosh".

Re:Get off your high-horses

because colleagues of mine who use Linux have told me about little issues like when upgrading the kernel to the latest version because it supported some more hardware and then existing hardware that previously worked stopped work, NICE!!

2.4 to 2.6?

Although I haven't heard of this issue, there is nothing wrong with staying with your existing kernel version. It's not like you won't be able to run new software like you won't with Windows.

Vista may not work on everyones machines fully, you may even have to use a couple of beta drivers to start with but Linux is exactly the same.

The Linux kernel supports far more hardware than any version of Windows ever did. I disagree with your statement.

The only difference being that with Vista the situation WILL improve over time

I some how doubt I'll be able to use Vista decently on six year old hardware (which I tried) while I can already use Linux on the same six year old hardware with Beryl for those 'spiffy' effects (even though I don't care for them) decently.

lol

Wow. You baught a PC from a store, configured, and you are bragging that it works? They would obviously sell you parts that all had some form of driver support. Especially considering you are in that small section of the market that makes stupid hardware decisions, buying the most advertised products. (3gb ram? 500 dollar video card? 400 dollar sound card!?).

"on my old machine I had 2 items in device manager with exclamations and I never knew what the hell they were"

So you dont know how to properly install drivers in your OS. And vista fixed this as it was pre installed. Just so were all clear on what your saying there, and your not actually blaming xp for you not installing the correct drivers.

 

"colleagues of mine who use Linux"

Hmm thats a rather trollish sentance. Is this just a troll post?

 

"The only difference being that with Vista the situation WILL improve over time, not sure the same can be said for the next version of UBER-GIJoe Linux or whatever the current popular flavour is are you?"

yep.

Re:Get off your high-horses

You're very brave to post this on /. You're right of course, but that doesn't usually matter here.

Re:Get off your high-horses

Heh

Because colleagues of mine who use Linux have told me about little issues like when upgrading the kernel to the latest version because it supported some more hardware and then existing hardware that previously worked stopped work, NICE!!

If your colleagues are compiling the kernel themselves they are obviously too stupid to perform the task and should stick with their vendor kernels. (hint, copy across the old .config to the new source tree, add new reqd devices during config)

What a lot of you guys forget is that there are millions (if not billions) of different hardware combinations of PC hardware out there and you're trying to make out that Linux is the saviour and will work on anything whilst laughing at Vista - you are bare-faced lying and you know it.

You mention only PC hardware.

Linux works on my Ultrasparc systems (fujitsu/Sun),DEC alpha, pocketpc (arm), beige powermac (albeit with flaky ADB), G4, G5 (w multilib userspace), amd64 (multilib userspace again) and mips (o32, n32 and 64 userspace) with support for pretty much all the hardware in said systems using no more than what comes in the kernel source tree.

Linux not only "fully works" for most hardware, but "fully works" across ALL of those architectures (well, the drivers for older apple gear are pretty shonky, but hey its not like apple publish specs) and provide identical userspace.

All microsoft have to worry about is x86/x86_64, and they cant even get that right.
Who is kidding who here about hardware support?