windows 8 does not support Prolific usb to serial driver

I have to tell you Shenan Stanley, you have no idea what you are talking about.  You have an answer for everything and everyone on here, but it is a waste of your breath.  How you ever got a job with Microsoft is hard to understand.  You cannot comprehend what you read, and you only hear what you want to hear. I'm perfectly sure that the folks who are here looking for answers find what I'm saying to be of great interest.  Some of your statements are outright lies.  Who are you protecting by lying?  There is no one in the world more honest and trustworthy than I.  My own software company has been affected by this game that Prolific and Microsoft are playing.  I've outlined the problem and the cure.  You have neither the intelligence or the education to even be replying to this post.  Do you push a broom? You certainly don't understand how Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 work.  I've been a programmer since before there were programming languages!  Before Bill Gates himself.  You are an imbecile.

Especially not when your point (whatever you think it may be) is made here.

Microsoft did not produce the driver in question.  There is not any evidence that it does what you say it does - that you have presented, and being the accuser, that burden is yours.  Microsoft is not responsible for the hardware devices they do not produce and rely (always have, likely always will) on the manufacturer to do with their devices and the associated support products - such as drivers and software - what they want/what they feel is best for THEIR customers.

Your issue about this product (the subject of this conversation) is, was and will remain to be one with the manufacturer of the product in question - not Microsoft.

You definitely do not have to install hardware device drivers that Microsoft offers and - as many have said over the years in these very forums - Microsoft did not likely manufacture nor do they support the hardware you utilize and even if they are offering the drivers through their normal method of pushing updates, you would (likely always will) be better served going straight to the manufacturer for the hardware device drivers and software and HIDING any hardware updates for non-Microsoft hardware offered to you via Microsoft Updates.

You sentence, "He contacts the software company and blames them because their product is no longer any good to him." describes exactly what should happen.  If their driver, even one they gave to Microsoft to be pushed via their service, is flawed - the issue still lies with the manufacturer of the product and the driver.

So, although you may have a point - it is LOST here.  Link to where you complained to the manufacturer on their forums...

Your point is that they ceased support for a product.  My point is that they deliberately created a driver that made previously sold products inoperative in order to sell a newer product.  Not just inoperative on Windows 8, but inoperative on every 64-bit Windows OS.  And Microsoft is providing this driver via Windows Update and installing it on every computer that uses a Prolific based device without the knowledge or permission of the user.  Then the user finds his devices no longer function.  The software that he purchased that uses those devices no longer works.  There is no driver to "roll back" to because the installation program also removes every Prolific driver from the computer beforehand.  After untold hours (or days) of research the user finds out that he needs to locate and install an older driver.  He does and installs it. Upon rebooting his computer, his driver is gone and the one from Windows Update is back!  Each time he tries this, it comes back again and again.  He contacts the software company and blames them because their product is no longer any good to him.   

Microsoft stopped support for XP and VB6.  Did Windows 7 and VB.NET make XP, VB6, and every VB program inoperable? 

You don't see my point?