Hardware Compatibility with Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows 3.x
Hardware Compatibility with Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows 3.x
Many updated drivers ship with the Windows Vista operating system DVD. However, when critical device drivers, such as hard-drive controllers, are not compatible with Windows Vista or cannot be found, Setup might halt the upgrade until updated drivers are obtained.
Note
You cannot upgrade from Microsoft® Windows® 95 or Microsoft® Windows 3.x to Windows Vista. If you are migrating from either of these operating systems you must do a clean installation of the operating system, and then install device drivers that are compatible with Windows Vista.
The 16-bit device drivers for Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows 3.x were based on the virtual device driver (VxD) model. The VxD model is not supported in Windows Vista.
An upgrade does not migrate drivers from Windows Me or Windows 98 to Windows Vista. If the driver for a particular device does not exist in Windows Vista, you might need to download an updated driver from the device manufacturer.