Windows 7

 

Compatibility

Since the biggest problem for most users running Windows XP and maybe Vista is the hardware and software compatibility, I will explain and guide you on how you can take full advantages of both of this in Windows 7.

Windows 7's Hardware compatibility isn't that bad, at least not as bad as Vista's. I'm currently running Windows 7 Ultimate(RTM) on both my computers, one a desktop and the other a laptop. From Windows 7 Beta all the way till RTM, I never needed to install drivers for my PC's. So to me, Microsoft has done a lot of work on the hardware support.

Actually while doing a search on Bing, I also found a few sites where the users talked about their Hardware and other experiences on Windows 7, so do drop by:

So far what do you think? Hardware support is unbelievably great on Windows 7, at least much more better than Windows Vista, XP and other versions right?

Grant George, the VP of Test for the Windows Experience, revealed that Windows 7 had full compatibility with Vista-certified drivers as a primary goal.

One of our primary goals for Windows 7 is compatibility with all Vista certified drivers and to ensure that people have a seamless upgrade experience.


So if you're running Vista right now, driver compatibility might not be as big of a problem that you think it might be for Windows 7. It should be actually way better. Well I am not saying that Windows 7 will support all Vista certified drivers, maybe just most of all of it.

Finding your right drivers is important for your hardware's compatibility, don't just take what I said above and install Vista Certified drivers on your PC without looking at this long list of manufactures that already have Windows 7 drivers for their products.

Motherboards

Desktop and Notebooks

ATI/AMD Radeon

Nvidia Products

Creative

Realtek

Printers and Scanners

Mouse, Keyboards etc

Credits to Windows 7 Center for ATI Drivers and Nvidia Drivers.

If you still can't find the solution, follow a guide here by prasys at Lowyat.NET forums.

So since the hardware support is no more a issue. Lets continue to Software support. Microsoft has also done a really good job with Software support. With Windows 7, most of my programs that I run in XP and Vista works fine. Windows XP Mode, this application is only available with Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise editions. So what does this actually do, well it allows you to run your software in a virtual Windows XP Enviroment. In easy terms, you can run a software on Windows 7 that is actually running virtually on XP Mode.

Here is just a small demo by a YouTuber, VedTTV demoing XP Mode.

 

So its quite impressive isn't it? Well that's not the only great thing. There is also a option available in most applications that allows you to set applications to run in Windows Application Compatibility mode. This are the following available options:

  • Windows 95
  • Windows 98/ME
  • Windows NT 4.0 (SP4)
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP (SP2, SP3)
  • Windows Server 2003 (SP!
  • Windows Vista (SP0, SP1, SP2)
  • Windows Server 2008 (SP1)

Follow this tutorial on how to set your program which is not compatibile with Windows 7 here.

So if you're getting worried about Software Compatibility and Hardware Compatibility while running Windows 7, you don't really have to worry that much anymore. This guide is for you if you are getting so tensed up about Hardware and Software support, Windows 7 is nearing its world wide launch which is officially on October 22nd 2009. So the question now is, "Are You Ready?".