This driver patcher covers all Windows 7 x64-compatible NVIDIA display drivers, specifically 372.90 through 474.44. The patcher adds support for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16 series, RTX 20 series and 30 series GPUs to Windows Vista, as well as the corresponding Quadro GPUs.
The modified NVIDIA drivers are incompatible with the Windows Vista Extended Kernel. If you wish to continue using it, replace ntoskrnl.exe with a copy from within the WinSxS store.
Instructions:
-Extract winload_ci_patcher.zip. Run setup.cmd and follow the instructions.
-Run the NVIDIA driver installer. It will specify a directory for extraction. When the extraction completes and a message titled "NVIDIA Installer cannot continue" appears, copy the contents of the folder to another location to prevent its deletion and close the window.
-Enter the "Display.Driver" subdirectory in the newly-moved directory and locate file nv_dispi.inf (or nv_dispwi.inf in Quadro drivers).
-Open the file and change all instances of "6.1" to "6.0".
-Run setup.exe in the root of the moved directory or install the driver directly using Device Manager.
-Extract nvidia_driver_patcher_vista.zip. Run setup.cmd and follow the instructions.
Note: the patcher has been tested primarily against NVIDIA driver versions 441.66 and 474.44, with both GeForce and Quadro GPUs. The image above depicts a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti being used on Windows Vista with the patched 474.44 driver.