Without Vista drivers, it's 2001 all over again

Hunt for software can be frustrating, time-consuming — and fruitless

When Vista launched, Microsoft says it made available 30,000 drivers, serving 1.7 million devices. Every month the company is adding between 1,500 and 2,000 drivers, or manufacturer links to them, at its support Web site.

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.

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.

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.