I hate to say this.... because I don't mean to rag on anyone
or anything... but...

that's what you get for installing the most devious of
operating systems of all time... if you had any idea of
the other "sneaky" (as you put it) things that xp does...
you'd be outraged..

and blaming the card manufacturer? I can't see that as
a very valid point... you can't expect the world to compensate
for the devious nature of one company, or even more specifically, one operating system.

if they did that... new hardware would take years longer
to be released.