I have been a long time user of Creative Labs Soundblaster line of sound cards. I am currently running an X-Fi MusicExtreme on Vista x64. Many users who have soundblaster sound cards have only basic functionality on windows Vista. An individual, Daniel Kawakami, on the creative forums had modded the creative drivers to work perfectly on vista. He had enabled many of the features that apparently Creative disabled on purpose.

For Audigy owners he had successfully provided working drivers for things like the equalizer, CMSS, DVD audio, Dolby/DTS encoding and hardware midi in windows Vista. These features are available in XP. He simply made them work in Vista. Many think Creative disabled these features to force end users to upgrade. The Vista Audigy support pack was removed from creatives forums. Within 24 hours the community was outraged by their actions towards Daniel.

Here are list of the forums posts from Daniel with support packs. The files are property of Creative Labs.

SB Live! for Vista
Audigy for Vista
Gameport for Vista

Here are direct links to the support packs at filefront.

SB Live! for Vista
Audigy for Vista
Gameport for Vista

I will try to keep these updated as the posts are restored to creative’s forums or I find them elseware. If I am officially contacted by Creative I may be forced to remove my links. I’m sure they will be gone from filefront by that time as well.

Creative had an official statement to Daniel Kawakami released by the VP Corporate Communications, Phil O’Shaughnessy. In this statement creative threatens legal action against Daniel. They also forbid him to accept donations for his work.

The bad publicity creative is getting for this won’t soon be forgotten. They are quickly changing their statements, possibly already feeling the effect the community has. Many suggest they give Daniel a position at creative. I doubt he would accept after they way they have treated him so far.

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