Microsoft Windows doesn’t always manage device drivers the way you want to. That can lead to significant driver problems over time, and in some cases, it can mask the real solution to a problem.

Loading New Drivers Doesn’t Always Get You New Drivers

When you worked with older versions of Windows, the operating system would overwrite old drivers with new ones when you found, downloaded and installed a new driver. With the old driver safely overwritten, the system had no choice but to use the new driver.

Newer versions of the Windows operating system don’t behave quite in this fashion. If Windows Vista or Windows 7 have a driver that’s working, installing a new driver won’t overwrite the old one, as in days past. Oh, you can install the new driver as many times as you want to, but the old driver will still keep plugging away because Windows sees no reason to give up what it views as a perfectly good driver.

If you’re not aware of this, and you encounter a problem with a device, updating a driver may not get you to where you think you’re going. In fact, you may not realize that your new driver is being ignored by the operating system. You think you’ve installed a new driver. (You’re right; you have.) Windows just isn’t using it.

The moral of the story here is that when you encounter a device that isn’t working properly, and you think the root cause may be a driver, uninstall the old driver first. Reboot the computer, then install the new driver. The same applies when you want to update a driver. Uninstall. Reboot. Install.

Microsoft’s newer approach to driver management – not overwriting the old driver – is something that can confound even experienced users. In fact, experienced users probably get caught by this switcheroo more often than you’d think. If you’re accustomed to thinking that the driver installation routine will automatically uninstall or overwrite the old driver, you could get stuck troubleshooting a non-problem for days!

With a professional driver management software package like Driver Detective, your driver management worries are done. Driver Detective downloads new drivers, but it automatically takes care of uninstalling the old drivers for you. When you download and install a new driver using Driver Detective, you actually get to use the new driver! Driver Detective also backs up the driver, in case it becomes corrupted, damaged or destroyed. Driver Detective is reliable and will save you time when it comes to managing and maintaining your PC.

Photo Credit: Internets_Dairy, via Flickr

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.

Photo Credit: Charles Kaiser, via Flickr