At the Security Garden Corrine blogged Ed Bott’s ‘Vista Master Driver List‘, which she has added to Windows Vista Bookmarks
That led me to Robert McLaws: Windows Vista: Six Months In, Your Mileage May Vary
This may be news to Jessica Mintz of the Associated Press, but not every Vista user has been griping.
You can count me in, I have not encountered any driver problems with a Dell XPS which had Vista pre-installed. I did elect to go with a integrated sound card because the alternative was Sound Blaster. After my own experience with Creative after upgrading another machine to Vista Ultimate, I was not going to take that route again.
Of course some people will experience problems, that is to be expected when a new Operating System is released.
However it is a sweeping statement to imply this is a problem for everyone and his mother running Vista.
After months of silence from Creative Labs and stonewalling by their forum moderators.
“Based on the feedback received from Audigy users, this is the latest update from our developers:
ALchemy for Audigy Development Started
When we released the first beta of ALchemy for X-Fi, we hoped customers would appreciate our efforts. Within only a few months, the response from users and the press has been overwhelmingly positive. Many of our customers have asked if we could adapt ALchemy to Audigy series sound cards. The X-Fi and Audigy series sound cards are built on different hardware architectures, and therefore require separate development efforts. However, based on the requests to date, we are pleased to announce that we have begun development of an implementation of ALchemy for Audigy series sound cards, and hope to offer this product as a low-cost upgrade to interested Audigy owners later this year.”
Still no word on Drivers, and thanks, but by that time I will have built my new pc.
ALchemy for Audigy
“Low-cost Upgrade” - WTF - Alchemy for Audigy
This silence is answer enough…
Difficulties were obviously experienced by Creative Labs in trying to provide updated drivers that work in Vista. I expected that. However a little communication with your customers would have gone a long way.
I didn’t expect Creative to release fully functioning Drivers within the first quarter, but I did expect that when they made a non-beta driver available for download, it would be an improvement.
With that anticipation, today I installed Creative Sound Blaster Audigy series Vista Driver 2.12.0002. Finally I might have some resemblance of the sound experience Creative delivered for Microsoft’s XP Operating System.
Disappointed, I found little difference between the previous beta and the final product.
This download is a driver providing Microsoft® Windows® Vista 64-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit support for Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® series audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.
Details
Perhaps when Creative decided to release unfinished drivers, it was because they felt the pressure from customers on their Product Boards.
The forum moderators do a good job under a lot of pressure, but it is not enough. The silence from Creative is deafening.
Patiently waiting for the release of updated drivers at Creative to support Microsoft’s Vista.
Windows Vista™ is currently available to volume licensing customers only. Creative will provide support for its products, as detailed in our Driver Availability Chart support, following its consumer release on January 30th, 2007.
Windows Vista™ - Driver Availability Chart
The last updated driver for the Audigy 2 ZS Series* is a Beta released January 12th 2007.
I downloaded and installed to use on my subscription copy of Vista; very limited functions on the Sound Blaster Audigy but better than nothing.
There are quite a few dissatisfied Creative users, as you can see here in their Discussion Forums
Creative does appear to be slow out the gate, but rather a solid release than a shoddy half baked one.
Countdown, will Creative be able to deliver……or not. 
Update 01-31-07
Apprantly the answer is not. See forum posts here and here
by certifiedbug on October 24, 2006
in Security
CIAC BULLETIN
R-024: Symantec Device Driver Elevation of Privilege
[SYM06-022]
PROBLEM: There is a vulnerability in a device driver which, if successfully exploited, could allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges or to crash the system.
PLATFORM: Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0.3 and earlier
Symantec Client Security 2.0.3 and earlier
DAMAGE: A successful exploit could potentially allow a local attacker to execute code of their choice with elevated privileges, or to crash the system.
SOLUTION: Apply current patches.
LINKS:
CIAC: BULLETIN
Symantec: SYM06-022
CVE:CVE-2006-3455
