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Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 04 Jul 2021, 23:12
by K4sum1
Note: This is not a guide, just a collection of various drivers for use with Vista.

Note for Haswell+ and Ryzen owners: Haswell+ and Ryzen have issues with Windows Vista.

For any drivers not listed, check your board/laptop's manufacturer's website.

AMD Chipset Drivers:
If you're on AM4, grab this. To install it, extract the drivers using 7-zip, and manually install the drivers using device manager. It doesn't have any of the broken drivers so there will be some missing drivers still.
For anything older, go to AMD's site and grab the Vista driver release.

Intel Chipset Drivers:
This looks to support all the way from some LGA 775 boards up to Z97 boards.

Intel WAN:
This is the latest driver that I can find
If your board has Intel I211 WAN, you'll need to manually install the I210 drivers from e1r60x64.inf through device manager.

Intel WLAN:
If you have a Centrino 6x00 or similar. Later cards 7260+, 3160+, etc won't work.
If this driver doesn't work for you, search for your device or look on your board/laptop's manufacturer's site.

Intel Bluetooth:
I haven't tried any drivers, so all I can suggest is searching for them.

Realtek WLAN:
This is the latest driver that I can find.
If this driver doesn't work for you, search for your device or look on your board/laptop's manufacturer's site.

Qualcomm Atheros WLAN:
This is the last working unmodified driver for Vista.
This is a guide to mod later drivers to work under Vista.
If these drivers don't work for you, search for your device or look on your board/laptop's manufacturer's site.

Solarflare WAN:
Bit of a rare driver, not even in SDIO.
Although filename says Windows 7, the installers contain drivers for XP, 2003, and Vista too.

Audio Drivers:
If the Windows Vista stock audio drivers work and you don't have anything fancy, just don't bother with audio drivers, they just add bloat. But if you have a sound card, or the Windows Vista stock audio drivers don't work, go to the manufacturers website, and get the drivers. For Creative hardware, I recommend you check out Daniel K's repacks.

AMD Graphics Drivers: There are four options, 13.12, 14.12,early 15.100 drivers, and 17.10.1.

13.12 is the last driver to officially support Windows Vista. It works all the way down to the Radeon HD 5400 series, and all the way up to the R9 200 series. Don't mind it being for the R9 290X, it will work with any card that supports 13.12.

14.12 has been modded to work with Vista. Download the driver itself here, and for files and info needed to mod the driver, download them here. The mods might only be needed for regular Vista, I think it works fine without them with the extended kernel. To get the AMD Catalyst Control Center, you'll need to install it using the setup, and then install the drivers after modding them.

The main use for the 15.100 drivers is for getting the RX 300 series working on Vista, but you can get it working on older cards for the optimizations done between 14.12 and this driver. Info about it here, and more info here. To get the Catalyst Control Center, install it using the AMD 15.7.1 Windows 7 driver, which is linked here.

17.10.1 has been modded to work with Vista. It requires the extended kernel, it allows you to use GPUs up to the Vega 64 (untested).
Information here. Download here.

Intel Graphics Drivers:
I suggest you don't install them if you have an AMD or Nvidia GPU, but if you have a laptop, or it's your only graphics processor, here's some links.

For Sandy Bridge (ix 2xxx).

For Ivy Bridge (ix 3xxx).

Nvidia Graphics Drivers: There are three options, 365.19, 378.66, and 398.11.

365.19 is the last driver to officially support Windows Vista, this works from Fermi (GTX 400 series) to Maxwell (GTX 900 series). Download here.

378.66 and 398.11 have been made to work with Vista by win32, 378.66 works on stock Vista, while 398.11 requires the latest extended kernel. In my limited testing, the 1000 series FPS issues don't happen with these. These drivers work great on Maxwell and earlier as well, so I recommend these for most Vista users. There's a new 382.16 driver that isn't listed in the site but is in the Mega folder, however I haven't tried it.
Download here.

For drivers for all USB 3.x devices, here. These drivers need KB2864202 to be installed.

Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 30 Aug 2021, 12:25
by K4sum1
The 15.100 AMD drivers are missing functions from powerprof.dll, in my testing it doesn't appear to impact normal use, however it breaks the Windows Experience Index.

Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 30 Aug 2021, 12:40
by CalmCreeper360
Thanks a lot!
I am thinking fo trying to install Windows Vista on my Laptop running a Skylake CPU.
I know its a crazy project, but maybe, with the help this article and the extended kernel, i might be able to do it.
Eitherway, i thank you so much for compiling this list.
It will make my life so much easier.

Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 30 Aug 2021, 12:42
by K4sum1
CalmCreeper360 wrote: 30 Aug 2021, 12:40 Thanks a lot!
I am thinking fo trying to install Windows Vista on my Laptop running a Skylake CPU.
I know its a crazy project, but maybe, with the help this article and the extended kernel, i might be able to do it.
Eitherway, i thank you so much for compiling this list.
It will make my life so much easier.
Got something in the works that I might publish in a couple hours, should help you out. That comment was something I was going to include as a note in the post but I decided it would fit better here.

Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 10 Feb 2022, 02:51
by Xi Jinping's Bear
Despite not being marked on realtek's website the latest realtek 8811, 8188 and 8192 drivers do work with vista and even xp

These can be more commonly found as tp-link usb dongles sold as tl-wn823n or archer t2n in shops but for some reason tpl never repackaged the rtl vista drivers on their cd's so yeah

Various drivers for Windows Vista

Posted: 12 Dec 2022, 03:31
by SatoshiHikari
thanks for the list k4sum1! these will help alot with getting older hardware up and running again keep up the good work!