Drivers for (Windows) Me?

Check Vendors for Latest Drivers

Major peripherals vendors such as graphics card maker ATI and zip drive vendor Iomega say drivers are ready for use with Windows Me.

"Iomega Zip, Jaz, PocketZip, and CD-RW drives from Iomega work flawlessly Windows Me," says Todd Schuelke, Iomega product reviews manager.

And even if you don't have the latest version of Iomega's IomegaWare utility suite, Windows Me has bundled native support for Iomega drives and adaptors in a variety of interfaces, including USB, ATAPI, FireWire, PC Card, and SCSI, he says.

But to take advantage of Iomega's full suite of utilities, you may want to download the vendor's version, Schuelke adds. The latest free version of IomegaWare 2.5 and Quik Sync 2 version 2.02 were both released earlier this summer.

Adaptec also says it's ready for Windows Me. Back in May, the company announced that its protection and system recovery software, GoBack 2.2, would support Windows Me. Now Adaptec also says its SCSI products are compatible.

"All our drivers for our SCSI products are available and embedded in Windows Me," says Paul Griffith, software marketing manager for Adaptec's core SCSI group. "We've gone through the standard process to obtain Microsoft's Windows Hardware certification, and all of our SCSI products have passed."

Symantec's Ready

Antivirus software vendor Symantec says the newest updates to its desktop lineup are all Windows Me compatible.

"The new products--Norton SystemWorks 2001, Norton AntiVirus 2001, Norton Utilities 2001, Norton CleanSweep 2001, and Norton Ghost 2001--are hitting the shelves as we speak with Windows Me compatibility," says Sarah Hicks, senior director of product management at Symantec. "New versions of our Internet security products will be available soon."

With the upcoming releases due in mid-September, the Internet security products Norton Internet Security and Norton Personal Firewall will be Windows Millennium Edition-ready, she adds.

Having a whole summer to prepare for the newest Windows release has apparently helped. Still, some vendors may not bother developing new drivers for older products. Analysts suggest you check with Microsoft and the hardware or software vendor to see if your preferred devices or applications have--or will get--a compatible driver for Windows Me.

(Tom Spring of PCWorld.com contributed to this report.)