Basic driver support is available: both the AMD and the Intel test computers booted after installing the 64bit operating system, but not all the built-in components were correctly recognised and some couldn’t be used. Problems occurred particularly with older and less common hardware components. Sound and network cards are good examples, but some more recent peripherals, such as printers, scanners and card readers, were also poorly supported in RC1. There were no 64bit drivers for Microsoft’s own Intellitype keyboards and Intellipoint mice, which meant that special functions such as programmable extra keys couldn’t be used.

As most of you will know, installation doesn’t always go smoothly with brand new devices. In our tests, the Intel PC’s onboard Sata (Serial ATA) controller was not properly supported. As a result, we could not even install Release Candidate 1 without switching to an EIDE drive: the installation failed because Windows could not find a hard disk.