How Long Will Backward Compatibility Last?

Soon I will be in the market for a new laptop. While I have been happy with Windows XP for the past several years, I have no choice but to get something with Windows 10.

My question is about backwards compatibility. Will I be able to use my old printers, scanners, and other hardware/older software? Will Windows 10 be able to read the drivers of my older equipment? Will everything I own become obsolete in the very near future forcing me to go out and buy new stuff?

Is there a standard "cut off" time period where newer OS cease to support/communicate with older equipment?

snegron wrote in post #17670324
Soon I will be in the market for a new laptop. While I have been happy with Windows XP for the past several years, I have no choice but to get something with Windows 10.

My question is about backwards compatibility. Will I be able to use my old printers, scanners, and other hardware/older software? Will Windows 10 be able to read the drivers of my older equipment? Will everything I own become obsolete in the very near future forcing me to go out and buy new stuff?

Is there a standard "cut off" time period where newer OS cease to support/communicate with older equipment?

In most cases it is not the OS that ceases support, it is the hardware manufacturer that fails to create updated drivers. There is no set rule, I have seen printers from the same company have very different end of life periods. In general cheap consumer grade products have the shortest life cycle, more expensive industrial grade products will have longer support. Also be aware that in many cases even if new drivers have not been released older drivers from previous OS's may still work. Today I installed a HP Scanjet on a Win 10 machine using Win Vista drivers(the newest available) and the scanner functions normally.

It's hard to say what hardware/software will continue to work. It depends upon who handles the support.

I have an Epson Perfection 1200 Photo flatbed scanner I purchased in 1999. It was quite good for the time but stopped working when I got a Win 7 machine in 2012. I hate to contribute stuff to landfills without a fight and ended up finding a company that makes drivers for old scanners like mine. For $39.95 I was able to resurrect it and it functions perfectly today - actually runs a little faster.

The best thing to do would be to go to the manufacturers site to see if they at least have at the very least a Win 8 driver for your device. If they don't, then there is a good probability the device (printer, scanner, whatever) won't work. For hardware here's what I had problems with since Win XP:

• Hauppauge 1850 TV tuner card doesn't work with Win 10 (video problems), but it worked with Win 7, so I replaced it today with a 2255 which works perfectly
  
• Canon i850 worked with everything from XP to Win 8.1 (and I'm certain it would work for Win 10) ... but it didn't work for my daughters new Macbook Air ... so I got rid of it.
  
• Nikon SuperCoolscan 5000ED scanner worked well for XP, worked poorly with Vista, didn't work at all with Win 7, 8.1 or 10. However, I purchased VueScan and now it runs like new again (on Win 10).
  
• Canon Canoscan 8400F worked fine with XP, Vista and Win 7, but didn't work at all with Win 8.1/10. Again, using VueScan it works perfectly with Win 10.
  

sapearl wrote in post #17670341
It's hard to say what hardware/software will continue to work. It depends upon who handles the support.

I have an Epson Perfection 1200 Photo flatbed scanner I purchased in 1999. It was quite good for the time but stopped working when I got a Win 7 machine in 2012. I hate to contribute stuff to landfills without a fight and ended up finding a company that makes drivers for old scanners like mine. For $39.95 I was able to resurrect it and it functions perfectly today - actually runs a little faster.

Right now you can buy the standard edition of VueScan for $10 off ($29.95). That's a pretty good deal

Bob_A wrote in post #17670358
Right now you can buy the standard edition of VueScan for $10 off ($29.95). That's a pretty good deal

Hi Bob - thanks for the tip, much appreciated. The VueScan s/w is what I purchased some years back actually. It still works quite well too. My Epson 1200 Photo has an illuminated lid module and I was able to generate some very nice TIFFs from medium format negatives I shot back in the 1970's that I scanned earlier this year.

As noted, check with the manufacturer for the device. WinXP drivers will not work with WinVista or later and 32 bit drivers will not work with 64 bit operating systems. If you can't find any driver, you can try plugging the device in and see what Windows can find.

I recently installed a Win7 PC for someone who an XP era Dell printer/scanner combo. No compatible drivers on Dell's site. I plugged it in and Windows found a driver, but only scanning related menu items showed up for it in the printers folder. I rebooted and it found printer drivers, creating a second instance of the device. But nothing worked. I deleted both instances, rebooted, and it merged them into one functioning device! So if it doesn't work, try unplugging/replugging and rebooting a few times before giving up.