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.

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Looking for Windows drivers can be about as fun as looking for your car keys when you’re late for work. It can also seem a lot like searching the desert for water. If you’re lucky, you might find it, and if you fail, you may be in big trouble.

Drivers Abound, Just Not Always In The Right Places

Windows drivers are available by the millions. That’s right; over time, there have been literally millions of hardware drivers written for the Windows operating system. That’s because there have been millions of peripherals designed to work with windows. Everything, from printers to keyboards to specialized hardware, requires a driver to allow the hardware to communicate with the computer.

Drivers don’t just happen and Microsoft isn’t responsible for writing drivers; hardware manufacturers are. When hardware manufacturers don’t write updated drivers, they’re essentially walking away from one of their products. Without a driver, the hardware won’t work properly, if at all. Older drivers might suffice, but chances are good that when an operating system changes radically – like the difference between Windows XP and Windows 7 is – there’s a good bet that a new driver is in order.

There’s no income involved for the manufacturer in writing a new driver for old hardware. Drivers are given away at no cost. Ongoing driver support represents the commitment a company makes to a hardware product, as well as an acknowledgment by the company that hardware can function admirably well past the manufacturer’s desire to continue supporting it.

Many peripheral manufacturers took a flyer on writing drivers for Vista, largely because Vista wasn’t a big commercial success. That approach is now causing problems for consumers who want to upgrade to Windows 7, and who still want to use their older hardware. Many manufacturers haven’t done the legwork needed to write a Vista driver, and the absence of a Vista driver significantly lessens the chance that a Windows 7 driver will be forthcoming.

For its part, Microsoft attempted to head off this problem by including a virtualization mode in Windows 7 that will enable the computer to run Windows XP. In virtual XP mode, the old XP drivers will still work. Unfortunately, the computer’s BIOS must support virtualization – a trick that many aging computers don’t.

If you’ve got an older piece of hardware that you don’t want to – or can’t – replace, and your computer can run Windows XP virtually, you can still access your older hardware and enjoy the benefits of Windows 7. (Just not simultaneously.)

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Windows 7 has been on the store shelves for more than six months, and the chief complaint about the OS seems to be the lack of drivers for older peripherals. And newer peripherals, too. Printers seem to be the biggest slowdown for most users and more manufacturers are walking away from certain printer models, presumably to avoid having to write a driver.

What’s So Awful About Windows Drivers

The printer is a special breed of hardware. One element of modern printer design that causes headaches all around is the fact that there are many different models of the same device. One model may be designed to plug directly into a computer’s USB port, while another model of the same device is meant to sit on a network. Functionally, the two devices may be the same. They may use the same design and have the same toner cartridge. They may look virtually identical, but minor differences may mean that each device needs to have its own driver.

Microsoft had hoped to avoid this by insisting that manufacturers have their device drivers ready to go by the time Windows 7 hit the store shelves. For manufacturers that had already gone through the trouble of writing a Vista driver, the task was simple. All they had to do was submit the Vista driver to Microsoft and prove that it worked on Windows 7. If the driver didn’t work, the manufacturer was required to correct the errors by the Windows release date.

Unfortunately, many hardware manufacturers never went as far as actually writing a driver for Vista. That worked well enough because many users never went as far as actually installing Vista. With Windows XP being officially declared “long in the tooth” and nearing its 10th birthday, many users were anxious to upgrade to a more stable operating system.

Microsoft provided Windows 7 and spent a fair amount of time working out the kinks before sending it to market. Hardware manufacturers weren’t so diligent, and after six months, the likelihood of getting additional drivers for older hardware is dimming.

Some users have found workarounds or assistance from third-party drivers. Other users have found that Vista drivers work well enough for their older hardware, when Vista drivers exist. Other users spend hours searching fruitlessly for driver support.

Nothing will help if a manufacturer hasn’t written an updated driver, but a driver management program like Driver Detective can certainly cut down on the amount of time spent searching for and installing driver updates. Driver Detective will locate, download, install and back-up your current suite of drivers automatically. There’s no more time spent looking for the correct drivers – Driver Detective does all the hard work for you!

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ATI has released new Catalyst 10.4 drivers designed to correct some issues including long load times and display issues that some users reported following the company’s last driver release. The new drivers are designed to work with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, though the company says that the latest hardware drivers will not work for netbooks manufactured by Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic.

Downloading Drivers Can Be A Hassle

Some users, notably gamers, reported problems with the company’s previous driver releases. Some issues included extended wait times and display glitches that caused the computer’s mouse to appear larger than normal on the screen. Users also reported problems with Adobe Flash Player and the driver’s support center. ATI made a portion of the new release available for download in April for users of the Radeon HD 5000 video card. The latest release covers the Radeon HD 2000, Radeon HD 3000 and Radeon HD 4000 series video cards. ATI had released the Catalyst 10.3 drivers in March.

Downloading the new drivers should improve performance on some specific games, most notably Bad Company 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, Napoleon Total War and Shattered Horizon. Users can download the new drivers by visiting the ATI Web site.

Downloading and replacing drivers can be time consuming. For users who simply want to use their computers without spending a lot of time on maintenance, I recommend Driver Detective. Driver Detective is a driver management program that monitors the hardware drivers your computer has installed. On schedule, Driver Detective checks for new or updated drivers and if a new driver is located, Driver Detective downloads the new driver and installs it while maintaining a backup of the old driver.

Users never have to worry about their drivers being out of date. Driver Detective knows when new drivers are available and can also detect when an existing driver has gone bad or is missing. Driver Detective will download a fresh copy of the correct driver for your computer system and you’re good to go. It’s a great way to avoid problems that might otherwise be allowed to sneak up on your computer. Regular driver maintenance doesn’t get ignored and you avoid the hassles and headaches that old, bad, missing or incorrect drivers can cause.

Unlike Windows, Driver Detective doesn’t download the wrong driver and works hard to ensure that your computer always has fresh, functional copies of all of the hardware drivers you need to make your system run right.

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall, via Flickr