I purchased the XLT Painless Programming cable to use on my Baofeng UV-5RE & Windows 7 computer after the OEM cable quit working. The OEM cable required lots of steps and fiddling with the Device Manager to make it work. The XLT cable was truly painless. After plugging the cable into the USB port (without the radio attached), it began searching for device drivers. It found the device driver, then updated a USB driver and everything worked. My only issue was the lack of feedback while updating the drivers, but that may have been a Windows 7 issue. It took several minutes to complete and the dialog box didn't immediately appear to let me know it was working. The supplied CD had the Prolific drivers available, but I didn't need to use them. I had to download the radio to CHIRP first, then upload on my desktop, but on my laptop I could upload immediately. I won't waste my time with any other programming cable in the future.

This is a better quality cable than you get from Baofeng. My Baofeng cable stopped working after the first upload so I bought an XLT Painless to replace it. It was a plug and play solution. The new cable works with both my desktop and laptop computers. Shipping was super quick, price was very nice as well. Thanks for having the solution to my problem.

Replaced a cable in which i was always having to fight the driver software. Your cable has saved me much time.

There is plenty of internet advice about what to avoid and which drivers to find and install to make a cheap counterfeit cable work on your computer. So I bought this cable instead. Go on line. Plug the cable into your computer and wait. It takes a few minutes to install and there aren't any screen prompts. I installed it on an XP laptop and a Windows 7 pc without a hitch. I used CHIRP to program my Baofeng UV5R. It works great for me.

Cable works every time. Together with CHIRP I was able to program in my local repeaters and emergency service frequencies in no time flat.

Bought the software twice. One microDVD did not load. The other purchase the software on the microDVD was copyable, but did not function. I was trapped. No solution.

so happy i purchased this cable. i had previously purchased one of the fake cables, and was forever having to reload the device driver for the fake cable. Sorry i went the cheap route initially. This cable works first & every time its plugged in. Very satisfied with the cable.

After reading all the rumors and speculation on other sites about Baofeng programming cables, these gentlemen gave an explanation I could understand and agree with. Folks, the old $6 cable is simply obsolete. Futzing with it got results for me on Windows 7, but after my Windows 8 purchase it was hopeless. Don't freeze your drivers on something that has been replaced by far better. Spring the extra money and get a cable with a chip set that is currently supported. I plugged in the cable and cycled the radio a couple of times. The cable installed itself, just like it was supposed to. It took a couple of tries to sense which serial port the cable was connected to, but then it worked perfectly.

This cable and the online CHRIP software make programming a Boafeng painless.

You have to cut small notch just before plug on radio end, or it doesn't seat properly, due to small ridge on radio plug slot. Other than that it is all good.