windows 8 does not support Prolific usb to serial driver

I am unsure of your point - but that is USUALLY how businesses - especially technology based ones - work.  They make new stuff at a rapid rate and replace the old.  In the process they also cease support for the old.  They (most of these businesses) - quite often these days - even have a life-cycle publicly posted in some manner for a product long before its 'end-of-life'.

So, Bob12345678(2),

Did you ever fix your hotmail issue?

[ http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/all/hotmail-account-hacked-and-vacation-forward-set-to/4d5675ef-6168-4427-9938-9806f36ecd12 ]

You are using one of the prolific USB adapters that has reached it's end of life. The prolific driver check for chipset version information and explicitly fails start, hence the code 10. This is not Win8 issue or driver bug.

http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=225&pcid=41

Windows 8 is NOT supported in PL-2303HXA and PL-2303X EOL chip versions.

• Run PL2303 CheckChipVersion tool program in Windows XP/Vista/7 to check chip version.
• Windows 98 and Windows ME driver support is discontinued and is no longer provided.
• Prolific recommends to buy **PL-2303HXD (HX Rev D) or PL2303TA**  chip.

-Eliyas

Too funny! Do you work for Prolific?  The only reason the earlier chip set has reached "End Of Life" is because Prolific wants all the previous USB-to-Serial devices using their chip to become obsolete.  This is how they've decided to combat the counterfeiting that has been occurring from China.  They have introduced the new 1.90 driver that is designed NOT to work with the older chip set.  The Code 10 error is the result of that design.  By default, Windows 8 and 8.1 automatically updates all drivers through Windows Update without the users knowledge or permission!  Unless you are a sophisticated programmer or extremely knowledgeable user, you cannot remove the driver without Windows downloading and installing it again.  Smooth move right?  Prolific intends on forcing the masses to buy new USB-To-Serial devices, it's that simple.  The Vista 64-bit driver (3.3.2.102) works perfectly in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, but first you must delete the 1.90 drivers and set Windows Driver Update to not update your drivers without permission.  If this makes you angry (and it should) go out and buy a device that uses the FTDI chip set which is immune to all of these issues and is Plug and Play as well.

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:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7FildjsrNkILWhYVHYwanJLS3c/edit?usp=sharing

http://mir.cr/1R5ACC0L

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?

You were spot on.

Downloaded driver from: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7FildjsrNkILWhYVHYwanJLS3c/edit?usp=sharing

than whamo, all good, many thanks

Thank you. This solution is the bomb!!! Please don't delete this. Running WIMBoot 8.1 on Toshiba Encore 32-bit with S & T 2011