Overview

Wi-Fi 6 and 6E only support Windows 10 and up. Wi-Fi 7 only supports Windows 11 and up.

Some Wi-Fi 5 adapters support XP (and Vista), while others only support Windows 7 and up. Among those that support XP, most are AC1200 (300Mbps + 867 Mbps); Asus PCE-AC68 is the only AC1900 adapter I found that supports XP.

Intel Wi-Fi adapter support matrix

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/ contains lists of Wi-Fi adapters. However, as of 2026 it's very hard to find Win2k (or older) drivers even with the chipset name.

EUSSO driver download (contains list of devices that have 98SE, ME, 2000 drivers)

9x

VOGONS thread

Ralink RT61 is recommended as it has WPA2 support for Win9x: https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/win9x-wpa2/

Compatible devices:

• Edimax EW-7128G
• Edimax EW-7326Ig
• Edimax EW-7316Ug

2000

The Boingo client is required to use WPA2 networks.

• BetaArchive thread
• Overclockers thread

Compatible devices:

• RTL8192CU
• DWA-131 (Rev A)
• RTL8187 (driver from Asus M2N motherboard)
• Edimax EW-7722UnD
• Edimax EW-7722In
• Edimax EW-7612HPn
• Edimax EW-7717Un
• Edimax EW-7718Un
• Edimax EW-7727In
• Edimax EW-7733UnD
• Edimax EW-7708Pn
• Edimax EW-7728In

XP

Notes:

• Use driver 1.0.0.23 for XP compatibility for Netgear A6200.
• WNDA3100 v2 and v3 also support XP.
• Archer T4U v1 is AC1200; v2 and v3 are AC1300.
• Edimax driver download
• For WUSB6300, only v1 supports XP.
• Asus USB Wi-Fi adapters with a model number <=56 also support XP.
• For DWA-182(D), use driver 4.05.

Intel only offers N (Wi-Fi 4) adapters for XP, the best of which is 6235.

7 ~ 8.1

From Netgear, A7000, the next model of A6210, is the last one that supports 7 and 8.1. It supports AC1900 (600+1300).

From Asus: USB-AC68 is the last Wi-Fi 5 USB adapter, supporting 7~10. PCE-AC88 is the last internal Wi-Fi 5 adapter, supporting 7 and 10 only.

From Intel, 8265 is among the last generation of cards to support Windows 7. 21.40.5 is the last driver version available.