Microsoft announced last week that Windows 8 will not be a distribution channel for third-party application updates. The statement doesn’t change the current arrangement for (read: Windows driver updates ) in its regular “Patch Tuesday” loads. Some users had been hoping that Microsoft would tackle the responsibility of delivering application updates through a single, uniform updater tool, provided by Microsoft through the OS. Microsoft put the kibosh on that, saying that application updating is just too darned complicated.

Change Means That Third-Parties Are On Their Own For Distributions

This doesn’t change things for Windows driver updates, however, not all third-party manufacturers update their drivers through the Windows Update feature. The change in policy for Windows 8 means that users will have to remain on duty when it comes to keeping their Windows applications up-to-date.

In terms of device drivers, the status quo doesn’t guarantee that users have the latest device drivers, and that’s going to continue in Windows 8. Right now, the experience of updating device drivers is a mixed bag. With some third parties participating in Windows Update and others doing their own thing, users need to keep track of what’s being updated regularly and what isn’t.

For busy users, or for those who are not technically savvy, a better approach to driver maintenance is using a driver management utility like Driver Detective. Driver Detective determines – based on your computer system – what driver updates you need and downloads them right to your computer. The updates are installed and a backup copy of the current driver is stored locally, in case something happens to the active copy. You can also roll back to an older version of the driver if a new driver update doesn’t behave the way you think it should.

You don’t have to remember to check for updates. Driver Detective does that for you. You also don’t have to keep track of a lot of hardware configuration information, because Driver Detective does that, too! This is ideal for manufactures that use multiple third party component options within a single model. Driver Detective determines what your system needs – not based on the model number of your computer – but based on the components actually installed in your system. If you update a video card, add a different mouse, or attach a new peripheral device, Driver Detective can track and maintain those devices, too.

Driver Detective is one of the best driver management utilities available today. Millions of users have already downloaded it and rely on it to keep their computer systems up to date. Download your copy today and say goodbye to outdated device driver problems!

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If you own a PC, you need to do driver maintenance. There’s no way around it, and your computer may not work properly without it! Windows has a built-in method for distributing drivers, but not all manufacturers (like Dell, for example) use it. This means you need to go directly to the manufacturer to get your Windows hardware drivers.

Driver Maintenance Can Be A Drag

There’s usually nothing to remind you to update drivers; you have to do that yourself. If you’re busy, you may forget to take time to maintain your PC. (Not a good approach, by the way.) If you’re not technically savvy, you may not realize that you need to update your own drivers. You may also know that you need to update your drivers, but you may not know how, or which drivers you need.

This all adds up to the strong potential that you’ll miss out on important or critical driver updates that your computer needs to ensure proper operation and security. Sometimes, important operating system updates like service packs can help you remember to update your drivers. Other times, your computer hardware just quits working, or starts behaving badly. Occasionally, a little overzealous file system cleaning can result in the deletion of drivers. You can also accidentally replace a good driver with a bad or incorrect one, and because you’re talking about bits and bytes, a driver – just like any other data on the computer – can become corrupted.

As I talked about last week, most users don’t keep backups of their hardware drivers. That complicates things somewhat when you need to reinstall a hardware driver for whatever reason. If downloading and installing drivers isn’t something you do regularly, you may not know what drivers your system needs, where to find them or how to install them.

That’s why I recommend Driver Detective as a solid approach to Windows hardware driver management. Driver Detective installs quickly and manages all aspects of all of your Windows hardware drivers. Driver Detective searches for the correct driver and driver updates for the drivers your system needs. It downloads, installs, monitors and maintains the drivers, and stores a local backup of the driver in case the installed driver becomes corrupted or lost.

You never have to worry about missing a driver update when you let Driver Detective worry about handling the driver maintenance for your system. More than one million users have downloaded Driver Detective and rely on it to keep their system updated and trouble-free!

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A new survey released by iYogi, a remote technical support firm, lists the top five consumer complaints regarding USB drives. It comes as no surprise to me (and probably the untold millions of technicians out there) that hardware driver problems are the prime suspect in two of the top five problems. The list either underscores the importance of device drivers, the number of issues that can arise as the result of hardware driver problems, or both.

Device Detection, Operation Can Be Troublesome

The chief complaint among consumers about USB devices is the inability of their computer system to “find” or detect the device, once it has been plugged in. The ability of the computer to locate a USB device and mount the file system is dependent upon the hardware driver. Problems can arise when the incorrect driver in installed, or the correct driver has been damaged or corrupted.

Replacing the driver is in order in either case, but consumers need to be sure that they’re loading the correct driver. Loading the wrong driver won’t get you very far, and loading a generic driver may not allow the user to access all of the available device functions.

The third most often-repeated complaint, according to the iYogi survey, is that the high speed USB port doesn’t function. USB ports come in three flavors: the “old” USB 1.0/1.1 specification; the faster, newer USB 2.0 type and the newly released 3.0 standard. USB devices can use a number of different physical connectors, but most computers provide a “Standard A” physical receptacle. The 2.0 USB implementation is currently the most popular, but users sometimes say that devices plugged into the computer’s USB 2.0 port aren’t recognized.

If the incorrect drivers for the device are installed, Windows may not recognize the high-speed nature of the device, leading to poor device performance. Similarly, Windows can recognize the device attached to the port, but cannot interface with it. Again, this situation is most likely the result of a hardware driver problem. Finding, downloading and installing the correct driver or driver update may solve the problem, but it can be time-consuming.

To avoid problems like these, I recommend that my customers use a driver management software program. I prefer Driver Detective because it takes over the responsibility of finding, downloading and installing the correct device drivers for USB and all other hardware devices attached to your computer. It also keeps backup copies of the current driver on –hand and can replace a defective driver before problems arise.

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Updating Windows drivers isn’t an exact science, by any stretch. Generally, a driver update should be applied as soon as it’s available, but there are some circumstances in which that might not be desirable. Typically however, you’ll be wishing for a driver update long before one is available!

The Hunt For Windows Drivers

If you find a driver update for your hardware, read a bit about the driver before installing it. The driver update may “repair” a function that you don’t or can’t use, or it may apply only to certain usage circumstances that don’t affect you. In this case, applying the driver update immediately probably isn’t necessary.

If the driver update resolves issues that affect you, make sure your system is patched to the revision level required by the driver update before installing the new driver. It sounds silly, but I’ve encountered computers that are missing several OS revisions but have the latest driver (which may or may not work properly). In short, make sure your system meets all the OS requirements for a particular driver before downloading and installing the driver update.

If, for some reason, you’re holding off on patching your system, you may also have to hold off on updating your driver until your system issues are sorted out. For example, you may have some specialized software or hardware that will only work with a particular revision of the operating system. Updating the operating system may introduce instabilities into your software or hardware or may render your specialized goods inoperable. In this case, there’s not much you can do except wait until all of your devices can be safely updated.

Windows 7 does allow you to run an XP emulator. Depending upon your configuration issues, this might be an option that will enable you to keep both your newer and older devices happy. For XP emulation to work, your BIOS needs to support virtualization. You’ll also need licensed copies of Windows 7 and Windows XP. Your older devices can be used under XP and your newer devices can be run under Windows 7. It’s not a perfect solution, but it may be enough to allow you to keep critical hardware running until you can find a suitable Windows 7 solution.

If you have real concerns about applying a system-level revision, make a backup of your system before upgrading/updating it. Be sure your old driver is included in this backup. Patch the system as needed, then apply the new driver. In a perfect world, everything should work, but when this isn’t the case, you may need to revert to your previous operating state.

Generally, your system will work best if it is kept up-to-date for both system patches and driver revisions. You can set your OS to update automatically. You can also control which patches are applied automatically and which require your approval. Using a product like Driver Detective, you can also have this automated peace of mind, knowing your drivers are updated as soon as revisions become available.

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