Update: For the Audigy 2 ZS people with garbled sound I was having the same issue, I noticed the Creative driver is pretty old dated 2006. Since installing the 'Daniel_K' drivers he did for Vista I've not had anymore issues.

Update 2: Quick run through on what drivers I'm using and where I got them.

Update 3: New release, fix issues with CMSS that older drivers had.

Update 4: Resolving lower than normal volume compared to Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Audio and game fans will no doubt have many similar stories to tell over the last decade regarding Creative's Soundblaster drivers. Let's just say, not many of those stories will be positive.

It got to the point where I stopped recommending average computer users dedicated sound cards and just advised them to use any onboard sound instead. Why? Because if you get a Soundblaster you had to go to their website, try and navigate around it then try and find the right drivers, put up with the drivers in many cases wanting to install a bunch of other stuff with them. Back in the old Windows XP days Creative's early drivers wanted to even put a Creative splash screen on your machine - which would start with every boot.

Or you could just put up with slightly worse sound, yet a sound card that would just work. Every onboard sound card I've come across has drivers on Windows Update. Creative never wanted their drivers up on there (at least not since Windows XP pre-SP1 days). They'd rather you run through a load of hoops to get them instead and bundle a few additional surprises along with them.

However I just installed Windows 7 build 6801 on my machine again today and was getting ready to hit Creative’s website to get the drivers. As I was doing that Windows was installing all the drivers from Windows Update in the background, things like the display driver, and the TV Tuner drivers, and low and behold it also said it was installing Audigy drivers too.

Hopefully this won't just be for the pre-release versions and shows a new direction Creative is taking with their software and drivers. Thanks Creative you've just saved me 10 minutes of my time.