Why can't Microsoft get their act together?

Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.

I've been noticing that I get static through the speakers on my new computer, particularly when I switch from one source to another... like listen to music through iTunes, then watch a video on the web.

I dealt with it for a couple weeks, but then I just got annoyed with it; it's a brand-new, high end computer with a decent sound card, and it shouldn't be happening.

I hit Google to see if anybody else was having the same issue, and found a relevant post on Microsoft's support pages. One of their own tech people actually told the person to go download drivers from the sound card manufacturer's website... why didn't I think of that?

So after an install and reboot, my sound is much better.

My question is, especially since my computer is so new, and the drivers I installed were released last summer, why is there such a performance difference between the OEM drivers that windows installed and the ones from the manufacturer that are nearly a year old?

-J