OT: Windows Vista Printer Drivers

I know this is way OT, but I feel I'd get the quickest, straightest
answer from folks in this group.

Are Windows XP printer drivers compatible with Windows Vista? My dad
brought home a brand new PC Sunday with the new Vista loaded.  I
installed the XP version of the printer driver (from Lexmark), and it
appeared to work - I get a new printer on the list of printers and can
bring up the printer properties etc, but it fails when I try to print
the test page or print from an application.
-- 
%  Randy Yates                  % "And all that I can do
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %  is say I'm sorry, 
%%% 919-577-9882                %  that's the way it goes..."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           % Getting To The Point', *Balance of Power*, ELO
http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr

On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:31:21 -0500, Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org> wrote
in comp.dsp:

> I know this is way OT, but I feel I'd get the quickest, straightest
> answer from folks in this group.
> 
> Are Windows XP printer drivers compatible with Windows Vista? My dad
> brought home a brand new PC Sunday with the new Vista loaded.  I
> installed the XP version of the printer driver (from Lexmark), and it
> appeared to work - I get a new printer on the list of printers and can
> bring up the printer properties etc, but it fails when I try to print
> the test page or print from an application.

My understanding is that Vista requires new drivers for ALL hardware,
including, of course, printers.

It is also my understanding from reading industry sites like
www.theregister.com and www.theinquirer.net that a lot of drivers are
not available yet, or stable if they are available.

I would suggest checking Lexmark's web site, but they've been very
problematic in the past.  Some years back, we had to wait nearly a
year for a promised NT driver for a laser printer.  Good luck.

-- 
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
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Jack Klein wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:31:21 -0500, Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org> wrote
> in comp.dsp:
> 
>> I know this is way OT, but I feel I'd get the quickest, straightest
>> answer from folks in this group.
>>
>> Are Windows XP printer drivers compatible with Windows Vista? My dad
>> brought home a brand new PC Sunday with the new Vista loaded.  I
>> installed the XP version of the printer driver (from Lexmark), and it
>> appeared to work - I get a new printer on the list of printers and can
>> bring up the printer properties etc, but it fails when I try to print
>> the test page or print from an application.
> 
> My understanding is that Vista requires new drivers for ALL hardware,
> including, of course, printers.
> 
> It is also my understanding from reading industry sites like
> www.theregister.com and www.theinquirer.net that a lot of drivers are
> not available yet, or stable if they are available.
> 
> I would suggest checking Lexmark's web site, but they've been very
> problematic in the past.  Some years back, we had to wait nearly a
> year for a promised NT driver for a laser printer.  Good luck.
> 

You are correct; Vista is, at the important layer of driver interaction, 
completely different and requires new (completely different) drivers for 
all hardware, although there is apparently an emulation layer that works 
for some (few) existing drivers if they happened to use the correct API.

Cheers

PeteS

PeteS <peter.smith8380@ntlworld.com> wrote in news:Yl5yh.210$WD6.36
@newsfe1-win.ntli.net:

> Jack Klein wrote:
>> On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:31:21 -0500, Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org> wrote
>> in comp.dsp:
>> 
>>> I know this is way OT, but I feel I'd get the quickest, straightest
>>> answer from folks in this group.
>>>
>>> Are Windows XP printer drivers compatible with Windows Vista? My dad
>>> brought home a brand new PC Sunday with the new Vista loaded.  I
>>> installed the XP version of the printer driver (from Lexmark), and it
>>> appeared to work - I get a new printer on the list of printers and 
can
>>> bring up the printer properties etc, but it fails when I try to print
>>> the test page or print from an application.
>> 
>> My understanding is that Vista requires new drivers for ALL hardware,
>> including, of course, printers.
>> 
>> It is also my understanding from reading industry sites like
>> www.theregister.com and www.theinquirer.net that a lot of drivers are
>> not available yet, or stable if they are available.
>> 
>> I would suggest checking Lexmark's web site, but they've been very
>> problematic in the past.  Some years back, we had to wait nearly a
>> year for a promised NT driver for a laser printer.  Good luck.
>> 
> 
> You are correct; Vista is, at the important layer of driver 
interaction, 
> completely different and requires new (completely different) drivers 
for 
> all hardware, although there is apparently an emulation layer that 
works 
> for some (few) existing drivers if they happened to use the correct 
API.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> PeteS

Any wagering on whether this is the OS "upgrade" that kills Windows?  I 
know many that feel as if its pushing them to OSX for their next 
purchase. 

-- 
Scott
Reverse name to reply

Scott Seidman <namdiesttocs@mindspring.com> writes:
> [...]
> Any wagering on whether this is the OS "upgrade" that kills Windows?  I 
> know many that feel as if its pushing them to OSX for their next 
> purchase. 

Or linux. 

My impression of it was... eye candy. Looks great. It's all
about image and little about functionality. 

Case-in-point: it couldn't (or wouldn't) play a homebrew DVD
out-of-the-box that played on his previous computer (and DVD
player) just fine.
-- 
%  Randy Yates                  % "And all that I can do
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %  is say I'm sorry, 
%%% 919-577-9882                %  that's the way it goes..."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           % Getting To The Point', *Balance of Power*, ELO
http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr

I spend a lot of my free time editing home movies and creating DVDs on the
PC. I am plugged into several newsgroups and forums that deal with this
topic. The general consensus there is that Vista has slowed the workflow
considerably, and the most intensive machine operation (rendering) is now
taking up to 30% longer to perform. Progress? - I don't think so!

Jeff Caunter wrote:
> I spend a lot of my free time editing home movies and creating DVDs on the
> PC. I am plugged into several newsgroups and forums that deal with this
> topic. The general consensus there is that Vista has slowed the workflow
> considerably, and the most intensive machine operation (rendering) is now
> taking up to 30% longer to perform. Progress? - I don't think so!

People like you are I are not Microsoft's customers. Their customers are 
  mostly OEMs, who pass on the Microsoft stuff on to us. Therefore, 
Microsoft's goal is to please the OEMs. The OEMs need to create a reason 
for people to buy faster machines with more memory, since that is what 
is easiest for them to make - innovative and interesting new kinds of 
machines is a much harder problem. The OEMs don't care if the drive to 
buy is for new features, or merely to have a machine fast enough to run 
slower software. Microsoft chooses the easier route too - they make 
things slower. It seems to me Microsoft is quite customer focused. The 
place they screwed up was not to have something shiny and new for the 
OEMs mid way between XP in 2001 and Vista now.

Regards,
Steve

I used to be a flagwaver for Microsoft. They were, after all, the company
that bought general-purpose programming within the price range of the
enthusiast (Microsoft Basic - mid '70s), and they were instrumental in
forging affordable, powerful, generic computing into the home from late
80's on. Where would the hardware focus for improvement have gone if it
hadn't been for Microsoft providing a secure software base?

Here we are now in the 21st century, and I see it all going to 'rats'.
Processing speeds, and machine capabilities are improved rapidly, yet we
increasingly have MS clogging everything up with 'dumbed down' Operating
Systems designed to 'cowtow' to the lowest denominator of user. It is,
indeed, a sad, sad, world that we live in. Long Live DOS! 

"Jeff Caunter" <jeffcaunter@sparkysworld.co.uk> wrote in 
news:iZqdnemHOZ4uuFTYnZ2dnUVZ_vmqnZ2d@giganews.com:

>  Operating
> Systems designed to 'cowtow' to the lowest denominator of user. It is,
> indeed, a sad, sad, world that we live in. 
> 

You're right.  Scientific and engineering computing used to drive hardware 
and OS needs.  Now, nothing "real" drives hardware--at least so far as the 
largest market shares are concerned.  OS's largely make it easier and more 
secure to perform routine online stuff, while flashing pretty pictures.  
Communication needs probably come closest to driving hardware and software.  
So far as science stuff, and numerical stuff, and the like, the goals of 
the new OS's seem to be merely to maintain backwards compatibility--and its 
not even clear that this is being done well.

Just how will Vista improve my Matlab experience??

-- 
Scott
Reverse name to reply

Scott Seidman wrote:
> "Jeff Caunter" <jeffcaunter@sparkysworld.co.uk> wrote in 
> news:iZqdnemHOZ4uuFTYnZ2dnUVZ_vmqnZ2d@giganews.com:
> 
>>  Operating
>> Systems designed to 'cowtow' to the lowest denominator of user. It is,
>> indeed, a sad, sad, world that we live in. 
>>
> 
> You're right.  Scientific and engineering computing used to drive hardware 
> and OS needs.  Now, nothing "real" drives hardware--at least so far as the 
> largest market shares are concerned.  OS's largely make it easier and more 
> secure to perform routine online stuff, while flashing pretty pictures.  
> Communication needs probably come closest to driving hardware and software.  
> So far as science stuff, and numerical stuff, and the like, the goals of 
> the new OS's seem to be merely to maintain backwards compatibility--and its 
> not even clear that this is being done well.
> 
> Just how will Vista improve my Matlab experience??
> 
Thankfully, it seems like a number of major tool vendors are catching on 
to this fact and starting to offer their tools in flavors of linux too.