windows 8 does not support Prolific usb to serial driver

As strange as it may look, you need an outdated driver to make it work. The only working version i've found is 3.3.2.102, which you can find on the links bellow:

<removed>

You need to force this driver version by going to device manager, choose update driver from right click into prolific adapter, the choose "browse my computer for driver software", then "let me pick...".  On the next window, it should show you different versions of the driver, and you need to choose ver 3.3.2.102 ok?

Lol - I'm actually ex-msft and create and sell .NET software, so no anti-Microsoft rant from me. I have a firm grasp on the intricacies of OS development and such, and understand the theory. However, this issue, regardless of who is to blame, is keeping people from upgrading to Windows 8. That should concern Microsoft (I also understand you are not Microsoft...). 

A fair number of people use GPS's powered by this driver. All of those people are now not using Windows 8, and won't until a

• a) Prolific fixes their driver (if it is their bug)
• b) Prolific writes a workaround of a Win8 bug (if it is a Win8 bug)
• c) Microsoft creates a compat workaround to the Prolific driver bug (if it is a Prolific bug)

Of these, the only one under Microsoft's control is (c). Telling customers to p*ss off and die until some other company does (a) or (b) has some cost to Microsoft - people are going to be upset with Microsoft regardless of where the bug lies. Perhaps this is "worth it" to Microsoft in order to keep their driver compat issues to a minimum. But I sure hope someone there has thought this particular issue through.

Wrong answer. These drivers worked flawlessly with Win7, and now they are broken in Win8. Probably some simple switch in the device driver layer, and perhaps it is, indeed, a bug actually in the driver that is now exposed in Win8...but in the meantime I am telling all my customers, who depend on their GPS's functioning, to downgrade to Win7. 

 

Regardless of where the bug actually is, it is a backwards compat issue that breaks the interfacing of many GPS;s to Windows.

Just because it is not what you want to hear does not make it incorrect.

It is the hardware manufacturer's responsibility to support their product under any given operating system.  While there is some backwards compatibility features built into each of the Windows operating systems - those are nothing more than crutches for people to use *when* the manufacturer of the actual product decides to stop supporting that product under some operating systems (new versions, etc.)

In any case - it is up to the manufacturer of the product trying to be used under a given OS to support or not support their product under that operating system.  If there is a bug, it is up to THEM to present that to the operating system manufacturer to work together to remedy it OR to rewrite their code to adapt to whatever issue they need it to work with.

P.S. - before you go all crazy with how much I must love Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8, etc... I don't care. They could all disappear today.  The answer will stay the same in general - just remove the "Windows" specific wording and insert any general operating system.