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.

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If you’ve decided to make the most of your Thanksgiving Day weekend by upgrading your computer to run Windows 7, you may be in for a long (or short) haul, depending upon where you’re starting from Windows 7 can be applied as an upgrade to your OS if you’re running Windows Home Premium or better. In this case, the underpinnings of Windows 7 – along with working drivers for Windows 7 if you’re lucky – are already loaded on your computer and the upgrade process is in order. If you’re running Windows Vista Home Basic or an earlier version of Windows, you’ll either need to do a clean installation, or you’ll need to upgrade to Vista, then upgrade to Windows 7.

Driver Issues May Still Keep You Down

The Windows upgrade route isn’t going to be a smooth sail for many users. The process is rather time consuming, in part, because Windows needs to do a lot of verifying on your existing setup to make sure all of your drivers, components and applications are in order. Not every application that ran smoothly under Vista will run under Windows 7, and part of Windows 7’s setup routine is to verify that each application will (or won’t) run.

If your computer has a lot of applications installed, this part of the setup process can take an extraordinarily long time. Applications that don’t pass the sniff test are marked as such and Windows 7 won’t allow these programs to run in the new OS environment.

Although Microsoft has worked closely with hardware manufacturers to make sure that drivers are available for hardware, there are still a few driver problems to be had, and many manufacturers have announced (post-release) that some of their hardware lines simply won’t be supported under Windows 7.

Before you upgrade your computer, check with the hardware manufacturers that created your monitors, printers, drives, mice, etc., to see whether they’ve created a driver for your particular hardware. In some case, a driver isn’t currently available, but is in the works; in other cases, you may find your hardware on the list of obsolete devices.

That may not be of much comfort to you, but at least you’ll know going into the process whether or not all of your hardware will be making the journey with you. If some pieces of hardware don’t have a Windows 7-compatible driver, you may find luck with a generic driver, or you may find that it’s easier and less hassle to spring for a peripheral upgrade.

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If you’ve upgraded to Windows 7 (64-bit version) or you’re considering the move, you should know that one of the security features Microsoft built into the 64-bit version of the OS is a requirement that all 64-bit device drivers must be digitally signed. Digital signatures aren’t really a favorite among anyone who has a stake in the issue, but the rationale for insisting upon digital signatures is that rogue drivers won’t make it into the system load.

Is There A Workaround For An Unsigned Driver

Most sophisticated technical users don’t really appreciate the “nanny” aspect of this security feature. Microsoft is in charge of passing out the digital signatures, and as you might expect, there’s a cost to getting your driver signed. Now, the cost isn’t borne by the user, but instead, the manufacturer of the driver needs to pony up for the digital signature. That’s why manufacturers don’t much care for this feature.

Users tend not to like it much because an unsigned driver won’t work. It can’t because it never gets loaded. Even if the driver were otherwise flawless, the fact that it doesn’t have a signature will prevent it from seeing the light of day. That’s why users don’t much like the feature.

So, naturally, the question arises: is there a workaround for an unsigned driver? Well, yes there is, but users aren’t going to like it much. If you want to use an unsigned driver, you’ll need to press F8 every time your system boots up. This will quickly turn into a major pain for users who don’t want to hang around while their computer gets its act together. That’s Microsoft’s acknowledgment that there may be times when a user really needs to load an unsigned driver. The F8 business was built into the Windows 7 OS to allow for driver testing. It’s in the final version and you can use it as a way around the annoying “unsigned driver” problem.

So, if the annoying workaround is too horrible (or inconvenient) to follow, is there a real workaround for an unsigned driver? (A real workaround as in one that doesn’t require user intervention each time the computer boots up.)

I’ve seen at least two different workarounds, but both involve disabling the User Account Control (UAC). Now, for some users, disabling UAC isn’t a problem, since they don’t like it anyway. UAC is that annoying program that pops up warnings when the computer concludes that you might be doing something that could lead to computer ruin. If you’re intent on using unsigned drivers (or opening up your system to unsigned drivers) and don’t mind taking the safety cables off, I’ll share some unsigned driver solutions in my next post.

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Regardless of what version of Microsoft Windows you’re using, you’ll need drivers to make your hardware work properly. The issue of working drivers is especially sensitive because a working driver is sometimes the difference between having to upgrade hardware and being able to retain what you’ve got. Despite Microsoft’s best efforts to make sure that Windows 7 drivers are available for third-party hardware, there’s no guarantee that hardware manufacturers will make drivers available for older hardware.

Driver Detective Can Make A Difference

For some manufacturers, making drivers available or abandoning a particular hardware platform is a matter of practicality. Developing a Windows 7 driver for hardware may not represent much effort, especially if a Windows Vista driver was made available. On the other hand, if a manufacturer chose not to make a Windows Vista driver available, the amount of work needed to support its older hardware at this point may be too great to justify writing drivers for legacy products. In some ways, the advent of Windows 7 will allow hardware manufacturers to make a “clean break” when it comes to their older (but still serviceable) hardware.

For most users, however, the biggest challenge is finding drivers – even ones that are readily available. For users that have difficulty managing drivers or who don’t use (or don’t trust) the automatic update function in Windows, using a driver manager software like Driver Detective means that you’ll never have to worry about finding the correct driver for the hardware you’re using or downloading a driver that’s incompatible with your OS. You’ll never have to troubleshoot driver problems either. When a new driver is available or your existing driver has gone bad, Driver Detective will identify the problem and correct it immediately. It’s almost like having your own personal PC technician working on your computer around the clock.

Driver Detective has been certified to work on all versions of Windows. No matter what OS you’re running, Driver Detective can help you manage your drivers and keep your system updated. It even takes care of the installation. You simply load and configure Driver Detective and the software does the rest. Driver Detective is an award-winning program that’s been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times by users all over the world. Regardless of what version of Windows you’re running, let Driver Detective manage your system drivers.

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