Printers the biggest headache with Vista

Microsoft has revealed that printers are the devices most likely to cause driver problems in Vista. Nearly 12 percent of attempted installations fail, around four times Microsoft’s own target.

The figures emerged at last week’s Microsoft conference for hardware partners. The firm’s Chris Matichuk unveiled the following figures taken from Microsoft’s automatic reporting program during September 2008:

Taken in isolation, it’s difficult to read too much into these figures as they don’t allow comparison either with earlier versions of Windows or rival operating systems. However, given that Vista has been out long enough that hardware firms have had plenty of times to sort out problems, and that these figures only apply to users on Service Pack 1, to still have this level of problems looks pretty shoddy. Matichuk himself said anything above a 3 percent incompatibility ratio is “not good”.

Printer compatibility has been a particular issue with Vista because it has struggled to cope with multifunction devices (those which incorporate scanners or fax machines), in some cases recognizing them as several different machines. That problem should be reduced somewhat in Windows 7, which has what’s billed as a more sensible approach to device management.

APCmag points out that the high figure for modems may in part be down to the 3G modems used for mobile broadband services. Those have been notably shaky for compatibility, mainly because the technology is so recent to the consumer market.

There are a couple of points worth noting in Microsoft’s defense. First, these figures only apply to new hardware installations, so they won’t necessarily show devices people already had in place and had no problems with as and when they upgraded to Vista.

Second, hardware manufacturers do take some of the responsibility for compatibility issues. Even if you think Microsoft does a poor job of creating Windows or liaising with manufacturers, it’s a market reality that firms need to do everything they can to make sure their products will actually work on a system many, if not most, of their customers will be using.

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