Microsoft said last week that it is readying the first service pack release of Windows 7, which made its debut last October. The company says that the service pack will contain only minor updates, including driver updates, most of which have already been released individually. Microsoft has not said when it will release SP1 for Windows 7, however the first service pack for Windows Vista was released about 14 months after the product was introduced to the market. Some media outlets are speculating that Microsoft will release the service pack as soon as the fourth quarter of 2010.

What’s In A Service Pack?

Service packs typically contain updates, bug fixes and occasionally apply new features to the operating system. Service packs can also extend features to an operating system that may have been disabled in the initial release. With the service pack, users can count on driver updates for some hardware as well.

Microsoft is indicating that users who patch their operating systems incrementally, (as is recommended by Microsoft) will not have much to cheer about in the Windows 7 SP1. That’s mostly good news. Users who don’t normally (or regularly) apply patches will get much more out of the first service pack, since all current updates will be applied.

If you’re concerned that you’re not getting the right drivers for your computer, or that you’ve perhaps missed a driver update, you don’t need to wait for a service pack to get the drivers you need. A driver maintenance package, like Driver Detective, can help keep you on top of the game when it comes to getting necessary driver updates.

Keeping your drivers updated is very important, especially since OS updates can change the way your system interacts with drivers. A system update can outdate a driver in an instant, and unfortunately the process of manually searching out, downloading and applying drivers can be time-consuming and tedious.

You can also run into problems when you download the wrong driver. Driver Detective has a database of more than 15 million drivers so it knows what your system needs and keeps the correct drivers on hand. Driver Detective not only downloads and installs driver updates, it also retains a copy of each driver that is installed in the event that a driver goes bad. If a driver becomes corrupted, Driver Detective will remove the damaged copy and install a fresh copy before the corrupted driver can cause system problems.

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Last week, Nvidia indicated that users of its GeForce graphics cards should remove drivers contained in package 196.75 that may cause the host computer to overheat and crash. The company has instructed users to install package 197.13, which rectifies the overheating issue. Alternately, users can revert to 196.21, the previous driver release. The driver problem affects Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP users who have the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, and 300 series desktop GPUs and Ion desktop GPUs.

Driver Maintenance Is Critical

Maintaining drivers for Windows is a critical function and the Nvidia problem illustrates how important it can be for users to keep their driver packages up-to-date. In this particular case, an overheating condition can cause damage to other system components. Some Nvidia users reported difficulty with their automatic fan speed controls. Other users reported that Windows games would hang on computers where the faulty driver update had been applied.

With a driver management software package like Driver Detective, there is no long arc to figure out that you have a driver problem, and no delay in applying the updated driver. Driver Detective searches out new drivers automatically and downloads and installs updates as they are released from the manufacturer. Driver Detective can help you avoid critical problems with your hardware and operating system software.

The alternative to using driver management software isn’t pretty. For each hardware item installed into or attached externally to your computer, you’ll need to seek driver updates manually. This means that you’ll need to go to each manufacturer’s Web site and seek out new drivers, or ask Windows to check for updates. When an update is found, you’ll need to download and install the driver update manually. This kind of maintenance can waste a lot of time, and it isn’t foolproof.

You can also set up Windows to download and install drivers as “critical updates.” Unfortunately, this method isn’t foolproof either, as Windows sometimes selects the incorrect driver, or fails to identify important driver updates. That doesn’t happen with Driver Detective. Driver Detective locates, downloads and installs the correct driver for your computer setup. It also backs up the drivers it has installed. This is important because Driver Detective can immediately tell if a driver has become corrupted and will replace the faulty driver immediately.

Driver Detective is a great way to keep your PC maintained and make sure your computer’s drivers are always up-to-date.

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If you’ve purchased an Energizer Duo USB battery charger and downloaded the software that Energizer provides to monitor charging status on your PC, you may have a little mess to clean up. The Windows driver that comes as part of the kit contains a Trojan.

Root Kit Distributed As Part Of Driver Software

The troublesome file is called “Arucer.dll” and opens a backdoor that enables nefarious users to access an infected PC remotely. The vulnerability was described in Vulnerability Note VU#154421 about Arucer issued by CERT.

The Trojan happily adds itself to the computer’s startup routine, so the Trojan is activated each time the computer boots. The Trojan then accepts remote commands to send files from the computer, accept new files from the remote connection, download other applications to the infected computer or execute files as directed by the remote user.

Unlike other rootkits and Trojans, the infected computer doesn’t “phone home” to acknowledge that it’s ready to accept commands. That makes the source of the Trojan harder to trace, and it also makes the computer vulnerable to any hacker who discovers the back door. The infected computer can be used by multiple hackers for whatever they need. For the most part, the infection is not detected by anti-virus software.

Unfortunately for users, the Trojan has been distributed undetected since 2007 and is embedded in the battery monitoring software. The first step toward ridding an infected computer of the malicious software is to uninstall the charge-monitoring application. Once the application is uninstalled, reboot the computer and delete the Arucer.dll file. Do not reinstall the battery monitoring software, since this will re-install the rootkit .dll file from the Windows32 System directory. Energizer has removed the Duo battery charger from the market and removed the Web site where users could download the infected software.

If your computer is infected by the Arucer.dll backdoor, you may have other malware infections you need to address. Once the rootkit has been removed, rescan and clean the computer to detect other potential infections. For networked computers, network technicians can block port 7777, which the software uses to listen for remote instructions.

Currently, Energizer has not indicated its plans in terms of replacing the infected software with a clean copy, but security experts say that all distributions of the companion software for the Energizer Duo USB battery charger are affected.

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If you’ve ever spent an afternoon replacing or updating drivers manually, you already know why you need Driver Detective. There are few things that are less rewarding than trying to use the built-in tools in Windows to locate, download and apply driver updates.

Driver Management Is Time Management

As a computer professional, one of the things I can say with certainty is that people simply want their computers to work. Most people don’t know or care how their computer system operates; they simply want their computer to work reliably when they need it.

Problems seem to crop up out of nowhere. This can be exceptionally frustrating for people who don’t understand the mystical inner workings of their computers or the Windows OS. Automatic updates to the OS are generally good, but people don’t seem to understand that the update process can change the way their computer operates, or require that other non-OS components be updated, too.

Security patches can shut down the normal operation of a working driver in a heartbeat. Users often don’t know that they need to look for updates regularly, or rely on the Windows Update mechanism to detect and deliver new driver updates.

Windows is good at a lot of things, but sometimes it chooses the wrong driver, or isn’t configured to pick up driver updates as “critical.” This can cause exceptional trouble for users who, in trying to do the right thing (update their OS), create problems for themselves outside of the OS.

That’s why I recommend Driver Detective as a way to automate driver maintenance on computers. Driver Detective is a trusted piece of software that has been downloaded millions of times. Driver Detective identifies and tracks all drivers installed on the computer. It automatically searches for, downloads and installs driver updates as soon as they are available. The correct driver for your particular system is downloaded every time. There are no mistakes and no missed driver updates.

Automating driver maintenance will save time and energy, too. Driver Detective an not only download updates, but it can also restore a driver that’s been damaged or deleted accidentally. This is a big help in terms of troubleshooting and problem-avoidance.

Some people like to tinker with their computers. For them, locating and downloading drivers may be the ideal way to spend an afternoon. On the other hand, if you simply want your computer to work the way it’s supposed to, you’ll want to add Driver Detective to your routine.

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