How to check hardware component compatibility

[Dorothy Gale]

I need some help with hardware compatibility. What happens here is that I had to provide advice on some number of older systems and few newer system. For the new running on Windows 7 does not have much issue as all new hardware will work on the same. But for an older system running Windows XP has issue for Pci support. So is there any support or tool where can I check hardware compatibility and software also. Thanks in advance.

[fragranz]

You can check from the website of Microsoft. There is an dedicated website which provides information on the Hardware & Software. You need to just enter the name and the site provides you that the current thing is compatible with the operating system or not. without prior installation. It is necessary to obtain the information before installing any new stuff in the system. You can face a system crash which can later on cost you much higher. Some hardware are also capable of damaging circuits if not placed properly.

[Udyan]

You must note that Windows 7 is in some ways was Vista before and in fact the core of Windows Vista is NT 6.0. On the other had the only difference is that Windows 7 uses NT 6.1 while Windows XP uses core NT 5.1. Due to this reason there was a lot of hardware and software compatibility issue with Windows XP and the same was very less in Windows Vista. So for this it becomes necessary to bring new drivers and updates for the same.

[Catawba]

There is no better tool provided for this. I had tried to search for some tools like Hardware Compatibility Checker which can test my system and provide me information on the current connected hardware. I can then try to work more on that. But there is nothing that kind of support provided. Some sites promises to provide a better report on the same but there is nothing on that. You can just go through the hardware specifications and get info on current hardware situation.

[Aandaleeb]

First, check whether the publisher of the application or not passed official tests conducted by Microsoft compatibility. It is simple, you just need to connect to the website created for the windows compatibility check. You can type the product name and even software to check the compatibility status. It is easily viewable without much issue. That is the only best way to get info which hardware to choose for your system. It is necessary before investing for the same.

[Biloxi]

For some cases you can try to go for virtualization tools. There are large number of applications which have not benefited from Windows 7 upgrade. A set of virtualization tools comes with Windows 7 compatibility. Virtualization tools need better hardware support with cpu support. If your system does not has a cpu accelerated virtualization support then this will not work which is the only issue. I will recommend you to go for this if your hardware supports. Best for software testing.