• New Application Compatibility training available
  The Windows Vista Team Blog reports that Microsoft has a team of specially trained consultants who can work with you on planning a large deployment.
  (tags: Training Deployment )
• Microsoft Updates Windows Vista Mobile Device Center for Windows Mobile 6 Devices
  Now has Windows Mobile 6 feature support, Automatic device authentication and Product Registration.
  (tags: Mobile Software Update )
• NVIDIA ForceWare Release 163.44 Windows Vista 64-bit
  Beta driver release. This driver supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI? technology on Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.1 support. Improved compatibility for Bioshock.
  (tags: Nvidia Video Drivers )
• NVIDIA ForceWare Release 163.44 Windows Vista 32-bit
  Beta driver release. This driver supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI? technology on Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.1 support. Improved compatibility for Bioshock.
  (tags: Nvidia Video Driver )

It annoys me that Nvidia have been claiming they are ‘Vista Ready’ when their driver releases have obviously been stop gap releases. My two latest experiences with nvidia’s drivers were both fraught with problems.

Nvidia nForce driver

On the 23/02/2007 nvidia’s nForce driver suite; nForce RAID Class Controller, nForce4 Serial ATA Controller and nForce RAID Device, was available to Windows Vista users via Windows update. One would assume than, if the driver had been cleared by Microsoft to be offered via Windows update that the driver was in fact ready. My experiences suggest otherwise. After installing the nForce driver via Windows Update and rebooting I found myself unable to boot back into Windows Vista. Luckily, Windows provided some salvation with the ‘Last Known Good Configuration’ option which presumably rolled back to drivers that were working before Windows was unable to load.

As it stands nVidia doesn’t have a complete nForce driver equivalent to its WindowsXP counterpart. It looks like I will have to wait for the next release of ForceWare drivers and hope they give me more love than this release did.

Nvidia ForceWare 100.65 driver released

What was previously a beta driver; the 100.65 release, has now been officially released and

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In a previous article I lamented on the Windows Vista Nvidia Control Panel Woes I was having. With nvidia’s latest Forceware 97.46 release, this is no longer the case.

Both a 32 bit and 64 bit version of the 97.46 ForceWare driver are available.

I haven’t had time to perform any conclusive testing as to the performance of the 97.46 release so I’m not going to go quoting numbers. But I do think from a subjective viewpoint that the new driver release feels faster in Battlefield 2 and Supreme Commander.

For more information on this release, you can find the release notes here.

It looks like Nvidia is picking up the pace a bit with its commitment to Windows Vista driver compliance and performance. Often switching to a new platform (such as Windows Vista) means poorer performance whilst the drivers are still targeting compatibility releases. Only after driver the majority of driver compatibility issues have been stamped out does performance become the main driving focus. After all, would you rather your card be supported, albeit in a reduced capacity, or not at alll?

Nvidia had the following to say:

“We are working diligently to make

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