14 DAY TRIAL // As Microsoft announced USB 3.0 support in Windows 8, I don’t think I was the only one thinking: “But what about Windows 7?” The promise from Microsoft is that all over 10 billion USB devices will work with USB 3.0 when connected to Windows 8 computers.
Backwards compatibility covers compatibility with current full, low, and high speed devices down to the plugs, revealed Dennis Flanagan, the Director of Program Management for the Devices and Networking group.
“Perhaps the most important aspect of USB 3.0 is the expectation that customers have of USB: it’s just USB3 so it should just work, right? Each and every USB device, low, full, high, and SuperSpeed, has to work in Windows 8. That's our focus while also delivering the most robust and reliable USB stack,” Flanagan stated.
At the same time, users will undoubtedly want to plug USB 3.0 devices into machines running Windows 7 and earlier, and have the technologies work seamlessly together.
One simple solution is for the software giant to backport USB 3.0 support to Windows 7 via Service Pack 2 (SP2). Since there are no upcoming service packs expected for Windows XP and Windows Vista, these two platforms might never get to fully play nice with USB 3.0.
But considering the fact that Windows 7 and Windows 8 are closely related compared to older releases of Windows, backporting USB 2.0 support seems doable.
This especially since the Redmond company can use the second upgrade for Windows 7 as the delivery method of the evolution of USB support.
Microsoft is currently hard at work building Windows 7 SP2 in parallel with Windows 8. There have no details shared with the public on Windows 7 SP2, especially as more and more information on Windows 8 is revealed.
Still, I have no doubt that USB 3.0 support is on the wish lists of many Windows 7 users, even more so now that it’s coming to Windows 8.