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I always thought that 'compatibility mode' only supports launching applications, while drivers do work in the kernel and are not supported.

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2 Answers 2

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There is no true compatibility mode for inf based drivers, the only thing that is related is to run the compatibility setting on the installer itself, some drivers are software based and this method will work for those.

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Which is a much nicer way of saying what I said. Thank you. –  user3463 Jan 25 '11 at 0:49

I've done it, but it's certainly not advisable necessarily. It also depends heavily on the type of device you're installing.

It's much easier, for instance, to get a Vista driver loaded on Windows 7 than an XP driver, but it's possible.

You'd lose the bet in that case, I'm afraid.

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:)) Can you give a hint how to do it? I hope it's not like 'launch the installer in compat mode' ;)) this obviously has little to do with the driver itself. –  kolypto Jan 24 '11 at 23:41
Pretty much, yes. In certain cases, depending again on the device and how the driver is distributed, you could simply search for the driver using the traditional method, and pointing it at the Vista or XP files. –  user3463 Jan 24 '11 at 23:43

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