You can install (force) unsigned drivers under Vista 32 bit. Many will have
to do this frequently until the hardware manufacturers are on top of things
(they are not at this point).

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User


"Mark" <Mark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7018F14F-8E87-4893-81CC-5F1126146DA4@microsoft.com...
>I need to get a new laptop, but have never liked some of Windows XP's
> "features" - mainly
>
> that it often thinks it knows what I want better than I do! I'd like to
> find
> out about some
>
> things in Vista before going with that though, in case it's even worse
> than
> XP (which it may
>
> be if some of what I've heard is true). I currently use Windows 2000, as
> that was available
>
> at the time and I much prefer it to XP.
>
> One problem I have found with XP is that it doesn't like installing
> unsigned
> device drivers,
>
> preferring to install a signed driver even if an unsigned one is
> specifically chosen. I have
>
> heard that Vista is even worse, usually not loading unsigned drivers at
> all.
> I have seen on
>
> these forums that Vista can be made to load unsigned drivers by booting
> into
> a different
>
> mode, but is there a way of setting it up to always boot into this mode
> without having to
>
> select is each time? Would there be any disadvantage of always booting
> into
> this mode? (I
>
> don't consider being able to use unsigned drivers to be a disadvantage!)
>
> Also, I have several USB devices which I want to continue to use. Should
> Vista be able to
>
> use the Windows 2000 / XP drivers for these until such time as Vista
> drivers
> are released? I
>
> think I recall correctly that 2000/XP could use 98 drivers to enable old
> hardware to be
>
> used? The devices I think are most likely to cause a problem are
> USB-enabled
> MiniDisc
>
> recorders (Sony MZ-N510 and MDS-JE780), Printer (Canon i70) and Camera
> (Canon Digital Ixus
>
> IIs). The rest should be able to use standard drivers from the OS
> (keyboard,
> mouse, various
>
> storage devices). Is there any easy way of finding out if devices will
> work
> under Vista? I
>
> might find time to look into dual booting a demo of Vista on my current
> machine to try
>
> things out.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark.