Microsoft has gotten a lot of things right with Windows 7, and the operating system fares better in terms of public acceptance than Windows Vista ever did, but some things don’t change and Windows driver maintenance happens to be one of them.

Driver Downloads Not Always Automated

Even though Windows 7 has automatic driver downloading capabilities – as did earlier versions of the Windows OS – that doesn’t always take care of the problem of Windows driver maintenance. In many cases, you the user still have to go out to the manufacturer’s Web site, download the appropriate driver for your system and install it on your own.

If a Windows driver becomes corrupted, Windows won’t automatically detect this and download a replacement copy. Instead, corrupted drivers still load to the extent they’re able to and cause a lot of strange behavior while you figure out that your driver has gone bad!

In other cases, the corrupted driver causes system crashes and hangs when you try to access the affected device. And some users prefer (for whatever reason) to use a particular version of a hardware driver, usually to avoid conflicts with other software or hardware attached to the computer.

Driver Detective is a much saner way to manage your Windows driver maintenance. Driver Detective can search for driver updates on your preferred schedule, and download and install them seamlessly. Driver Detective also makes backup copies of your current driver installations, so if a driver becomes corrupted, you have a replacement driver available to you immediately!

Driver Detective takes the guesswork out of driver downloads. You don’t run the risk of downloading and installing the wrong driver. You don’t need to remember to check the manufacturers’ Web sites for driver updates, and you don’t spend a lot of unproductive time trying to troubleshoot driver problems.

Driver Detective has been well reviewed by Geek Files and Tucows and more than 1,000,000 users have downloaded Driver Detective for use on their computer systems. Driver maintenance is an unrewarding task, to say the least, but Driver Detective can help ensure that your computer hardware has the latest drivers (or the driver set you prefer) and, a backup for each driver your system uses. Driver Detective can also help you ensure that you choose the correct drivers for your unique computer configuration. Download Driver Detective today and take charge of your Windows Driver maintenance!

Photo Credit: dan4th, via Flickr

As a professional PC technician, I have to admit that I’ve spent hours searching for, downloading, installing and managing Windows drivers. I also have to say that I have better things to do with my time. Looking for Windows drivers isn’t fun. Sure, Windows says it can find drivers, and in some cases, that’s true. In many other cases, however, the search for a new driver begins and ends with the user rather than the OS.

Manufacturers Don’t Always Come Through

Hardware manufacturers are ultimately responsible for providing hardware drivers, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get much satisfaction from them. Manufacturers are notorious for dropping support for old (and not-so-old) devices, simply by not issuing new drivers for their existing hardware.

It’s frustrating for the user, but this is the manufacturers’ way of prodding users to buy newer hardware, even when the old hardware is working just fine. Windows 7 users may find themselves in a particular bind. They’ve upgraded their OS based on the positive reports from other users, only to discover that their hardware has been deemed “obsolete” by the manufacturer. Likewise, a manufacturer may never have issued a Vista driver based on the users’ “strong preferences for Windows XP.” The unavailability of a Vista driver might just be the best predictor of whether or not your device ends up on the long, slippery slope to oblivion. If a manufacturer hasn’t made a Vista driver, there’s a great chance that you won’t be seeing a Windows 7 driver, either.

You may still be able to find Windows drivers that will talk to your hardware, but the real value of having the right driver is that all of the device’s “built-in functions” will work. Without the correct driver, the device may have limited operating capabilities, or may not work at all.

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 7 and you can’t find a driver for your device inside the OS, the first place to check is with the device manufacturer. Some manufacturers have already identified the devices they support (or plan to support), so verify that your device is on the supported list.

If your device isn’t on the supported list for Windows 7, check the vendor’s site to see if they’ve issued a device driver for Vista. The Vista OS is remarkably compatible with Windows 7 in many areas, including hardware drivers. A Vista driver may work just fine with your Window 7 installation. Failing that, there is a possibility that a Windows XP driver will work. (You’ll need to watch out for 32-bit v 64-bit versions.) The XP driver is far less likely to be a perfect fit, though.

You can always do what I do, which is rely on Driver Detective to locate, download, install and manage drivers. It saves me a great deal of time, which makes Driver Detective worth its weight in gold.

Photo Credit: John Trainor, via Flickr