Keeping your computer hardware drivers updated is one of the kindest things you can do for your computer, and ultimately for yourself. Driver problems seem to crop up mysteriously. One day, everything is working fine and the next day nothing’s working.

Use A Driver Manager To Stay On Top Of Your Drivers

In reality, drivers can fail for a number of reasons. A working driver can become corrupted or be deleted accidentally. You may not realize there’s a problem until you go to use a peripheral device and you can no longer access it or it misbehaves. Bad drivers can also slow down a computer significantly or cause it to crash.

Troubleshooting a driver problem can be tricky, too! If you don’t know what to look for, you can spend a lot of time struggling with non-working peripheral devices. Meanwhile, Windows may not recognize that the driver isn’t working properly, or that it’s missing.

Driver problems can be the result of an upgrade or patch to the operating system. The manufacturer may issue a corrected driver but in the mean time, you may get stuck with the old driver and a host of unusual hardware problems.

Patching the operating system can require you to verify the proper operation of all of your hardware drivers. You may even have to visit the Web site of each peripheral device you own to determine whether the manufacturer has updated its drivers, and you may have to wait for a release to take place.

To simplify the maintenance of your computer, I recommend that you consider loading and using a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective has been downloaded millions of times and is trusted by users worldwide to monitor and manage their Windows drivers.

Driver Detective starts by scanning your computer and identifying your attached peripheral devices. Driver Detective maintains an impressive library of millions of drivers, so it’s highly likely that Driver Detective will be able to manage your drivers for you. Once Driver Detective know what hardware you’re running, it will download, install and monitor the drivers for updates and operation. If an update is released, Driver Detective will download and install the update for you. If your driver becomes corrupted, Driver Detective will install a fresh copy of the driver right away.

The process of maintaining a PC can be time-consuming and frustrating. For the average user, I always recommend automating maintenance tasks like driver management and I’m happy to recommend Driver Detective for the task!

Photo Credit: Arne Hulstein, via Flickr

Did Santa bring you a new computer for the holidays? If so, you’re in luck! Now is the best time to set yourself up with good maintenance habits that can help you keep the drivers for your new computer operating as it should as time goes on.

Configure Your Computer Now

Especially if your new computer came with Windows 7 installed, you’ll notice that you’ll receive a bevy of updates and patches over the coming months. In addition to patches designed to keep the operating system working safely, many manufacturers will be updating Windows drivers for the hardware they support, and that may be installed on your computer, or attached by you at a later date.

Because many manufacturers are just bringing their updated Windows 7 drivers to market, you may find that the older piece of hardware you really want to keep requires an updated driver to work. If the driver for your hardware wasn’t submitted to Microsoft, Windows may not be aware of it. Check the manufacturer’s Web site for the latest information on the drivers your hardware requires.

In addition to providing information about hardware the manufacturer will support, many manufacturers are identifying older hardware models that they will not support, or whose support will be limited. It’s a good idea to keep yourself up-to-date on the status of support for older hardware. This may save you some anguish in the future and help you avoid an unpleasant surprise. It may also prompt you to start looking for replacement hardware, should it come to that.

One good maintenance habit to get into when it comes to your hardware drivers is to set yourself up with a good driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective has been downloaded millions of times and can track literally millions of drivers for updates. Driver Detective can be invaluable when it comes to managing your drivers. Not only does Driver Detective identify your drivers, it locates them, installs them and monitors them for updates and for proper operation.

If one of your drivers fails, becomes corrupted or requires an update, Driver Detective will locate the correct driver and install it on your computer as soon as the driver is available. You no longer have to check the manufacturer’s Web site for each piece of hardware you own. Driver Detective also keeps a backup of your drivers in case your installed driver becomes damaged or gets deleted accidentally. Ultimately, that means no more wasted time struggling with drivers that don’t work and more productive computer time for you!

Photo Credit: Alan_D, via Flickr

If you’ve spent a lot of time in front of your computer, you may also find yourself spending a lot of time looking for Windows drivers for your computer hardware. One of the downsides of using a PC is that hardware is manufactured by many different companies. These manufacturers don’t use the same software drivers to allow your computer to communicate with the device. In fact, each device has a unique driver.

Some devices made by a company may share a driver. Printers are good examples of that. A printer company may have multiple printers that use the same version or similar versions of a driver. On the other hand, even minor differences among the features of similar devices can require a new driver.

The Hunt For Windows Drivers,/h3>
Windows has been on the market for a long time, and to date, there are literally millions of device drivers out there. Some devices are no longer supported by a manufacturer. When a manufacturer cancels support for a device, it means they will no longer write a driver or keep its driver updated. This can put the user in a bad position because one change or update to the operating system could render your device useless.

This can be frustrating to users because it sometimes requires them to replace hardware that is mechanically sound but no longer has a working software driver. Without the driver, the device may be as useless as it would be if you dropped it down a flight of stairs.

Finding drivers can be difficult, too. Each OS upgrade may require you to visit the support sites for each piece of hardware attached to your computer, download a new driver and install it. Occasionally, installing one driver will interfere with another driver, and your computer (over time) can accumulate quite the collection of outdated drivers.

That’s why I recommend that users install a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective does all of the heavy lifting for you. It identifies the exact drivers your computer needs, downloads them, installs them and monitors them for you. Should anything happen to one of your drivers, or should it be updated by the manufacturer, you’ll always have the latest drivers along with a backup copy on your computer. Driver Detective takes the work out of managing updates for your computer hardware, and having the correct, updated drivers installed on your computer can mean less downtime for you!

Photo Credit: Dick Rochester, via Flickr

If you’ve been using Windows computers for awhile, you know that one of the things you need to do regularly is install updated Windows drivers. You may wonder why your drivers require updating, especially if things are working as they should be. Hardware manufacturers update their drivers primarily for two or three reasons.

Looking Out For Updated Drivers

Updated drivers may be required if Microsoft updates its operating system. I’m not talking about the major upgrades, although updated drivers are almost certainly a by-product of those. I’m talking about the patches that Microsoft puts out now and again. Sometimes, in fixing one thing, the code for an existing driver needs to be rewritten or changed. You may find that after installing an update, a certain piece of hardware no longer works properly. An updated driver may take care of the problem.

Sometimes, security “holes” are discovered that would allow a remote user to take advantage of your computer, install malware or infect your computer with a virus. Updating the driver may take care of a security hole, or make your peripheral devices less vulnerable to this type of attack.

Third, software drivers from the manufacturer sometimes contain errors that the manufacturer wants to correct. In this case, the manufacturer will put out an updated driver to replace an existing one.

Occasionally, the manufacturer wants to enable a new feature or extend an existing feature often thanks to OS updates. A new driver will help an updated computer interact with the peripheral device.

The problem with updated drivers is that most manufacturers don’t announce when they’re going to be released. The average user may not know that an updated driver is available and may only go looking for updated drivers if a problem arises. Windows has been able to detect and download drivers, but many users don’t have their computers configured properly to install new driver updates. In addition, Windows sometimes misidentifies the driver that’s needed. From experience I can say that downloading and installing the wrong driver can be as bad as having no driver at all.
Windows may catch updates, but it won’t catch a misbehaving or corrupted driver, either.

Driver Detective is a driver management program that identifies, downloads, installs and monitors your Windows drivers. If a new driver becomes available, or if your existing installed driver gets corrupted or accidentally removed, Driver Detective will reinstall a fresh copy of the driver seamlessly. I recommend Driver Detective because it does such a good job of maintaining an up-to-date driver library.

Photo Credit: Look Into My Eyes, via Flickr