YESSSS! Microsoft rocks, wow! Go, Bill, Go! YEAH!

[pcchen]

Pfft.. old drivers usally work fine.
It's only those pesky videocard drivers that need updating once in a while.
How many popular games have even needed driver updates for it to work out of the box?

You'd be surprised by the number of computers with outdated drivers.
And not only games may need new drivers. Many video players do need updated drivers.

 

[DudeMiester]

I wonder if this will screw small IHVs over, because they lack the clout and reputation to convince OEMs of their driver quality and reliability.

 

[Skrying]

I wonder if this will screw small IHVs over, because they lack the clout and reputation to convince OEMs of their driver quality and reliability.

I kinda doubt it. If you're carried in a major OEM then you have to be able to produce in very large volume, which kinda eliminates the small fish in the first place from that market.

I'm also very sure that Microsoft will be several months behind on the drivers, but that will be due to heavy testing required for such a service. I dont think you could ever expect the absolute latest drivers to be offered right away or even within a month of release.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Pfft.. old drivers usally work fine.

Ya usually...except when they don't right? Lots of hardware ships with crappy buggy drivers, why do you think they're updated so often? When troubleshooting someone's PC, half the time I can solve their problem simply by getting the updated drivers.

 

[Moloch]

Ya usually...except when they don't right? Lots of hardware ships with crappy buggy drivers, why do you think they're updated so often? When troubleshooting someone's PC, half the time I can solve their problem simply by getting the updated drivers.

Sadly my hardware didn't ship with buggy drivers, but I use nvidia
The only reason I update drivers is the "optimizations" that give ya a few frames, and also purevideo updates.

 

[Diplo]

Just because an exception might be traced back to a driver doesn't necessarily mean the driver is at fault. Often errors are caused by a combination of software, hardware, user competence and, dare I say it, the operating system. If Microsoft are going to start rating drivers then perhaps they should also turn the spotlight on themselves, too...

 

[Albuquerque]

I'm going to add one more "old drivers typically work just fine" onto the pile. My PX865PE Pro II motherboard from Albatron is still using the exact same network, sound, USB, SATA, RAID and chipset drivers that came on the CD.

The ONLY driver I change with any frequency is the video card driver, and for obvious reasons. Everything else is stable in every game I've played and that hasn't changed since ~24 months ago when I bought this board.

Maybe you guys are buying shitty hardware that needs so many driver updates?

 

[_xxx_]

Sadly my hardware didn't ship with buggy drivers, but I use nvidia
The only reason I update drivers is the "optimizations" that give ya a few frames, and also purevideo updates.

Shouldn't you change your nick then? "GeForceic2" maybe?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Maybe you guys are buying shitty hardware that needs so many driver updates?

No there are improvements to be made, bugfixes, performance increases, compatability, etc. You only have to look at the history of Via drivers or Nforce drivers to see that updating drivers did give you a faster, more stable system with more features over the life of the product.

 

[Moloch]

Shouldn't you change your nick then? "GeForceic2" maybe?

No, I am being fictitious when boasting nvidia.
From what I know about the next gen parts I want an ati part
I've wanted an ati card for 2 generations but they have not had a good card in my price range.

 

[NRP]

I'm going to agree this is a good feature. I ran the Vista system analysis software for my Sony laptop, and it said all of the various drivers were available. That's pretty cool. It can be a nightmare to get drivers for Sony products.

I realize there is a lot of acrimony toward MS, but this is a nice feature and I believe in giving credit where it is due.

 

[ANova]

I'm going to add one more "old drivers typically work just fine" onto the pile. My PX865PE Pro II motherboard from Albatron is still using the exact same network, sound, USB, SATA, RAID and chipset drivers that came on the CD.

The ONLY driver I change with any frequency is the video card driver, and for obvious reasons. Everything else is stable in every game I've played and that hasn't changed since ~24 months ago when I bought this board.

Maybe you guys are buying shitty hardware that needs so many driver updates?

It seems like driver updating has almost become a fad in the computer world, if you don't update you're labeled a "noob" or computer illiterate. What they don't seem to understand is you only need update if you are already experiencing problems, otherwise it's pointless and can do more harm then good.

 

[Riptides]

Yup.. no need to update because MS tells you so.

Anecdote: People using ASRock boards with JMicron SATA-II chipsets found out that if you download the (only available on MS) new JMicron driver it disables the SATA-II speeds back to SATA-I speeds.

PITA to go dig up original driver and have it update as it's not "approved" by Microsoft.

*sigh*

 

[Guden Oden]

While it sucks when drivers do that, the difference in performance will be totally miniscule and most likely completely undetectable. It's not a 'performance loss' that I would lose much sleep over, as no harddrive in existence is limited by standard SATA transfer speed to begin with.

 

[Riptides]

Umm.. using HDTach told a different story.

As when using the original JMircon driver I was getting somewhere under SCSI transfer burst speeds. Using the MSupdate driver it dropped down to around PATA133 transfer burst speeds.

More Anecdotal Evidence Here

 

[poopypoo]

Btw, catoring to the weak is slowing down human progress.

lol, apparently your time in the military hasn't humbled you any. tell your mother she shouldn't have catered to the weak. how's that?

on topic, as you can clearly see, MS's userbase ARE the "weak". they ARE the people who want it done for them. and in some cases, they ARE me. i suspect this will not be as efficient as going to the manufacturers' websites. MS have been trying to get this done for years and failed. If they succeed, however, it would be a great boon!