Without Vista drivers, it's 2001 all over again

Marko Pohjola knows tech. But even a consultant for a Web hosting company can find himself spending hours trying to find the drivers he needs to make some of his gadgets work with Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system.

“Some of the device drivers were already included in the Windows Vista device database, like my Microsoft wireless mouse,” when Vista was released in January, he said.

But that hasn’t been the case for some of his gadgets, such as an ultra-secure flash drive and a USB bar code reader.

Drivers are software programs that are critical to making those kinds of devices and other hardware, from video cards to printers, play nicely with and communicate with a computer’s operating system.

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They don’t have the sex appeal of MP3 players, SmartPhones or digital cameras. Yet without updated drivers for Vista, some of those gadgets may not work with Vista, and it could start to feel like it’s 2001.

That’s when Microsoft’s last major Windows revision, XP, was released.

Since then, there has been an explosion in the numbers and types of gadgets consumers are using with their computers that require drivers, everything from TV tuner cards to home networking routers to more sophisticated gaming cards. All of them need drivers in order to work with a PC.

When Vista launched, Microsoft made available 30,000 drivers, serving 1.7 million devices, said Dave Wascha, the company’s director of platform partner product management.

Every month, he said, the company is adding between 1,500 and 2,000 drivers, or manufacturer links to them, at its support Web site.

Wascha recommends Vista users take advantage of the Windows Update feature, where many drivers being added can be found.

Even so, every day, the hunt for Vista drivers can still be elusive, time-consuming and frustrating.

Web message boards and blogs are filled with rants and pleas for help to find the right drivers for beloved or much-used devices that worked perfectly fine with Windows XP, but are not working at all with Vista.

“Installed Vista, used for a week or so and uninstalled (went back to XP),” wrote “12thplanet” on msnbc.com’s message board in March.

“HP did not and will not provide drivers for my 7400C Scanjet.  I was able to find a third-party driver, but none of the HP application software would load.”

The scanner retailed for $499 in 2001, when it was released.

“Currently, there is no Windows Vista driver available for your HP product,” the company says on its Web site, although it adds: “HP is currently working to make the HP driver solution for your product available as soon as possible.”

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