Windows – Will all drivers for windows 8.1 work on windows 10?

driverswindowswindows 8.1windows-10-preview

Will all drivers for windows 8.1 work on windows 10?
Like for hybrid laptop/tablet detachable keyboard drivers … etc

Best Answer

As with every new component in a system, something new might introduce incompatibillities. Microsoft is trying hard to fix bugs in other peoples software; windows 10 not named Windows 9 because some software might test version-string starting with 'windows 9' to determine if it actually runs on Windows 9x is just the tip of the iceberg and most dedicated developers think this is one of the root of all evils.

That being said, you can make the educated guess that of course it will NOT happen that "all drivers for windows 8.1 [will] work on windows 10". Most might. So if a driver…

  • does not rely on any special Windows 10 features
  • follows KernelModeDriverFramework
  • catches any exeption in a stable way
  • does not leak

…it might function. Those are many IFs.

So the correct answer to your question is:

Will all drivers for windows 8.1 work on windows 10?

With almost complete certainty, NO, not all.

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