NVIDIA Graphics

Hi.

I occasionally get little messages from NVIDIA about a newer driver being available for my [Win7] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti card.

However, I've never actually done anything about the messages because (a) I don't know how to go about updating drivers and (b) I wonder whether such a change would have an adverse effect on games I have in current play

So I'm interested, please, in what advice any techies would offer

I found the latest drivers for the GTX 560 Ti card on Windows 7 here
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132838/en-us

You can find them yourself by going to
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
and filling in the boxes. Googling Nvidia drivers will find the website.

I wouldn't recommend getting the drivers through Microsoft Windows update or anywhere else except directly from Nvidia.

There's a description of these drivers and their improvements here
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/391.35/391.35-win10-win8-win7-desktop-release-notes.pdf

The pdf lists some modern games they've improved the drivers for. If you're going to play Talos Principle, that's one of the games they list.

One thing you never used to have to worry about with video drivers was security. Now that video cards are being hacked to run cryptomining software for the hacker, security of video drivers has become a concern. The pdf I linked to above has a section on security.

In the past, I was in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp when it came to video drivers. But if you're online in 2018, you have to be concerned with security and you can't depend on Microsoft to support Windows 7 correctly.

If the latest drivers don't work well with your games, Windows allows you to revert to previous drivers.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/driver_rollback.html

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Nvidia has instructions for installing video drivers ***here***.
These instructions seem to be from January 2017, but the procedure is probably similar.
Note that they say antivirus can interfere. So the procedure would be:
1. download drivers
2. temporarily disable antivirus
3. right-click exe for drivers and select Run As Administrator
4. follow prompts to install
5. restart computer
6. re-enable antivirus

Can't add much more to Jenny's post above, but I always keep my Nvidia 660 Ti video card drivers updated.

Support for Windows 7 ends January 14, 2020.

You watch Drac , Win 7 will become the new XP , so to speak . Kind of sad in a way , but at the same time , a testimonial to some user's reluctance/unwillingness to change . I try to keep my video drivers updated , but at the same time , don't lose much sleep if I don't , if that makes any sense .

Windows 7 is already the "new" XP. Very sad in my opinion. It was/is a great operating system. I understand why Microsoft doesn't want to support a nearly 10 year old operating system, but will still be sad to see it go. I keep telling myself that Apple might support their operating systems 3 to 5 years, so we should be grateful, but still.....

I also understand why MS doesn't want to support Win 7 any longer , but that is a discussion for another time .

Thanks very much Jenny100 (and Draclvr). I will keep all the info you provided. It is invaluable

For me, the three best Windows operating systems have been Win98SE, WinXP and Win7.
And they are all still working wonderfully for me

[ Of course, only my Win7 machine has internet viability and I will absolutely HATE it when support for that ceases ]

Mad-Wait until you are introduced to the wonderful world of Win-10.(Ha!) Here is a hint, "Classic Shell" made it a little easier to get used to.

Geo

I've already told my Son in Law (who builds my computers) that if he can't make Win 10 look and behave like Win 7 I don't WANT it !!!!

You will like "Classic Shell" then. Make sure he knows about it.

Oh, he knows the Windows Systems from head to toe, Geo, and is very unlikely to provide me with anything I won't like ....

Although, having said that, Win 10 could be a "first"

As much as I dearly loved - and still do - my Windows 7, I have slowly grown to love Windows 10 even more!

My favorite versions of Windows are the ones that my favorite games were intended to run on -- Windows 95/98/2000/XP

Ah, yes... Windows 2000. Another excellent and stable operating system. Loved it.

I never used Win2000. I went straight from Win98SE to WinXP.

Was it similar to WinXP ??

Windows 2000 was like XP in terms of stability.
The Windows 2000 desktop "looked" more like Windows 95 or 98.
But underneath 2000 was more similar to XP (both NT-based rather than DOS-based).

Windows 2000 did not require online activation -- a huge advantage for anyone who had to deal with legitimate versions of XP spontaneously deactivating because of changes in hardware, software, or for no reason at all.

"Windows 2000 did not require online activation -- a huge advantage for anyone who had to deal with legitimate versions of XP spontaneously deactivating because of changes in hardware, software, or for no reason at all."

I can't say I've ever experienced my XP machine "spontaneously deactivating" - whatever that entails - but it sounds shocking

I had it happen when attempting to install Microsoft Office.
Many people have had it happen when replacing computer hardware that failed. Whether this happens depends on what hardware was replaced and which way the wind was blowing.

Spontaneous de-activation is not limited to XP.
It happens with Vista, 7, 8, and later versions of Windows too.
But it never happened with Windows 2000 or earlier Windows that didn't use online activation.

No, it was more like 98SE, but much more stable. It was a great workhorse. XP was the first big departure looks-wise and build-wise from the old operating systems. Initially, XP was a horrible hot mess, but by SP 3 was finally a decent OS.

If you're talking about security, then yes.
It wasn't until XP SP2 that Microsoft "got serious" about security.

But for older games meant for Windows 95/98, the original XP was great.
Compare playing Arthur's Knights on the original XP vs on XP SP2 or SP3.
People were actually playing it on XP when it first came out -- before all the SP's.
Dreamcatcher actually advertised it as compatible with XP.
***archived webpage at Dreamcatcher with requirements from 2001***

Not XP with SP2 (2004) or SP3 (2008).
Maybe not even with SP1 (released in Sept 2002)
Not without Virtual PC or VMware insulating the game from the host computer.

Since XP has to be offline anyway these days, you may as well go with the original if you want to use it for Windows 95/98 games. Even better would be using Windows 95 or 98 -- if you have the drivers and the computer to run them on.

Security was definitely what I was talking about. But there were entire websites devoted to getting games to play on XP. But I believe you are right that it was after SP 1 and 2.

Inferno's website was the best one I know for getting older games running on XP. It's down now, but at least some of it is still viewable at the Web Archive.

***Inferno's Adventures***

Sorry to her Inferno's website is down, but glad to know it still available at the Web Archive. Haven't used it in a very long time, but used to make use of it often.

Yes. I still have the snippets of info somewhere - that I copied - which were so kindly given out by Inferno

The metzomagic website also has good tips for playing Windows 95/98 games on XP.
***Steve's Legacy Games Corner***
Unlike Inferno's website, metzomagic is still online.
There may be some patch links that don't work any more, like the one for Outcast, but those patches can usually be found elsewhere, like patches-scrolls.

The metzomagic website also has the ***Virtual PC 2007 FAQ***
Virtual PC is especially useful for games that use versions of QuickTime that aren't compatible with XP and later.

Thanks for reminding us, Jenny100. I'd forgotten about the metzomagic website !!