Older hardware support in Windows 7

Older hardware support in Windows 7

I have a hardware that has to be connected via USB. This piece of hardware is very uncommon and not to be used by general users (it burns firmware into microcontroller [OKI Semiconductor], the device is called uEASE [micro ease]). I use this hardware in office but now I've to use it in my home pc. My office pc runs of Windows XP Professional and home pc runs on Windows 7 Ultimate. I've the driver for XP. Unfortunately, the driver is not supported by Windows 7. Whenever I try to install/update the driver from device manager, Windows 7 says:

Asked by: Guest | Views: 216

Total answers/comments: 2

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"The 'easiest' way is to run it inside XPMode on Windows 7. This is a full XP installation that runs in a window, totally separate from your Win7 installation, however, MS has made it appear seamless so apps you install in XPMode's XP can appear as if they're running as normal Windows 7 apps.

For example, I have a topfield PVR that uses an old USB driver, but this is not supported in Windows 7, so I installed XPMode, then installed the PVR app there along with the old driver - and it all works.

there's lots of guides for setting it up on the web."

Guest [Entry]

"Windows Vista switched to a completely different device driver model, and so all drivers written for XP and earlier won't run natively in Win7.

You can run XP in a VM, but its a sloppy solution to a ""I need one thing"" problem.

Check with OKI Semi to see if they've released an updated driver. Since the hardware is so specific, you should be able to find one, and if not the vendor will usually write an updated driver if enough users register interest in such a driver (especially if the piece of hardware is pricey and low volume)."