In my last post, I talked about kernel mode drivers. Most people don’t appreciate what the computer actually does when controlling hardware, so the distinction between Windows drivers that operate at the kernel level and those that operate at the user level is somewhat lost. Unfortunately, the diminished security and increased power of the drivers that operate at the kernel level is precisely what attracts malefactors to the kernel level drivers.

IE9 Still Vulnerable

My reason for bringing this up is to underscore the importance of having up-to-date drivers and up-to-date applications installed on your system. IE9 has a few patches that were released last week to correct some kernel-level vulnerabilities. Unpatched systems will remain vulnerable to these potentially serious hacks.

It’s important to note that when Microsoft releases a patch, bad actors reverse engineer the patch to detect flaws that they can take advantage of. Patched systems are closed, but guess what? There are still plenty of unpatched systems that can be manipulated. Generally, you have less than a month between the time Microsoft releases a patch and the time hacks designed to take advantage of the problem appear.

That’s not a hard-and-fast rule; that’s just an approximation. Really juicy hacks can appear within days or even hours of a patch release – if Microsoft has gotten to the bug before hackers have. If the hackers have gotten there first, Microsoft is in the “reaction” position and your systems are vulnerable until a patch is released.

The problem can be especially critical when the vulnerability involves kernel mode drivers – the drivers that operate at the very core of the operating system. They have the most access, the most power and the fewest restrictions, so a kernel mode driver hack is prized by the bad actors and feared by users and developers alike.

Kernel-mode drivers are most likely to control very time-sensitive data manipulation. Video is a good example. The video display on the computer has to be able to change instantly, without any perceptible time delays. Most video systems, therefore, run kernel-mode drivers. If a kernel-mode driver crashes, the whole operating system can go down with it.

User-level drivers, on the other hand, are forced to go through a number of security levels to get their requests fulfilled. They pass their requests to more privileged parts of the operating system and eventually, the kernel reacts to their request.

User level drivers are slow, but the good part about them is that their overall influence on the system is limited. If a user-level driver crashes, the rest of the system is unimpacted.

Next week, I’ll wrap up the discussion on kernel mode drivers and share some famous (or infamous) kernel mode hacks.

Photo Credit: Alf Melin, via Flickr

Keeping your system updated is a bit of a chore, but Microsoft has automated that task for the most part. Still, some users prefer to do or authorize upgrades and updates manually. Few things are more disappointing to a user than to spend a lot of time applying a major update like a service pack, only to find out that the SP won’t load. Believe it or not, your Windows drivers can make or break a service pack installation.

Drivers Can Cause Installation Failures

When this kind of failure happens, you can roll back the OS to its previous state easily enough, but how do you solve the problem of updating when the SP won’t load? There are several prime suspects when you get this kind of error, but one of the most common reason for service pack installation failures is the drivers loaded onto the computer.

A good prophylactic step is to review all of your Windows drivers. Remove the drivers you’re no longer using and update all drivers you are using to their active revision level. Drivers – either those too old or those unused – can interfere with operating system updates and installations for important things like service packs.

The importance of driver maintenance can’t be understated here because it can make the difference between working on a more safe, more secure and more stable OS and working on an OS that’s vulnerable to third-party attack or chronic instability.

If you can’t bear the thought of doing regular driver maintenance, and your Windows OS doesn’t seem to find all of the driver updates you need, consider a different approach to driver management. Driver Detective is a driver management software program that can maintain and monitor your system drivers for you, leaving you available to take care of more important matters.

Driver Detective has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times and has received excellent reviews from users and professionals alike. Driver Detective will download and install new driver software, remove old drivers, and maintain a local backup copy of the current driver revision. Driver Detective will save time and effort over the long run because you won’t waste your time on fruitless installations, troubleshooting and rollbacks.

Driver Detective will find and apply new updates automatically, so you don’t even need to go out looking for updates. When an update for a driver your system uses is made available, Driver Detective will find it, download it, install it, back it up and archive the old driver. You can also roll back to the older driver version if you need to. Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this!

Photo Credit: Hexadecimal, via Flickr

By all accounts, Intel had been planning to launch its latest processor platforms for both laptops and netbooks in September, but new reports suggest that Intel’s third-generation Atom chipsets did not achieve Windows 7 certification on schedule. The revised release estimate for the Cedar Trail M and Atom chipsets is November. The holdup surrounds the platform’s graphics drivers.

Thinner Notebooks Kept Waiting

Netbook manufacturers that planned to Cedar Trail, will need to wait until the chipset achieves Microsoft’s Windows 7 certification, which may not occur until October or later. The new netbook chipsets are reportedly smaller and more efficient. The change in design will allow manufacturers to jettison the cooling fan, and offer a battery life of about 10 hours.

The Atom, Intel’s netbook and mobile device platform, was first introduced in 2008. The newest version of the chipset will offer Blu-Ray support, Fast Boot, HDMI and DisplayPort output options, Intel Wireless Music and Wireless Display, PC Sync and more. The new chipset could make netbooks (as well as other platforms) much more attractive and versatile.

There’s no indication that the delay in certification will cause delays for Intel’s next chipset release, the Medfield, which offers a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, or the Clover Trail chip, which is expected in the second half of 2012. The Medfield is currently expected to hit the market in the first half of 2012.

For such a media-intensive chip, the failure of the graphics drivers to pass certification requirements is significant. Intel will no doubt redouble its efforts to bring the chipset to market before the end of 2011. How problematic the certification delay is remains to be seen.

Netbooks were an almost instant hit when they were first introduced to the market, but consumers have turned their attentions to tablet computers. The delay of an updated Cedar Trail netbook platform by sixty days may not put a significant dent in sales or consumer interest in new netbook products.

The Atom, however, is designed to support mobile devices, and its absence or delay could put a crimp in the plans of a wide range of mobile device manufacturers. The delay could mean reduced holiday availability of new mobile devices, something both manufacturers and retailers would prefer not to miss. Nonetheless, Windows 7 certification is exceptionally important for Microsoft, since the company is pinning future OS development on the Vista/Windows 7 platform.

Photo Credit: Nima Badiey, via Flickr

Last month, Microsoft made a Kinect software developer kit available for Windows. This will allow third-party software developers to create new Windows applications for the Kinect technology. Prior to the release of the Kinect drivers for Windows, the technology was available only for the Xbox 360 game system and as an open-source kit from PrimeSense.

Hardware Drivers Mean Everything

With the availability of the Kinect drivers, consumers should expect to see new gaming opportunities for Windows 7 applications, as well as apps that are programmed using Visual Basic/Visual Studio 2010, C++ or C#. This is good news for gamers who don’t have an Xbox 360 system but still want to take advantage of the technology. It may also be a way for Xbox 360 gamers who have the Kinect system to extend the technology to their PCs.

The availability of Kinect drivers may also open some other creative uses of the Kinect technology. For the most part, it’s designed to be a game controller, but the technology could also provide precise control for non-gaming applications. One potential might be applications that study or use human motion. The Kinect technology may also be useful for designing more realistic animations.

The availability of hardware drivers is essential to support any hardware-based technology in Windows. Keeping drivers updated and properly maintained is also important to ensure that a Windows computer system interacts reliably with the attached peripheral devices.

With third party drivers for Windows-compatible hardware, there is no predictable development or update cycle. Each manufacturer is responsible for updating and distributing its own drivers. This complicates driver maintenance because the user must continually check for new driver updates. The Windows operating system does have a way to automate driver updates, but not all manufacturers use it and not all driver updates need to be loaded.

To manage and maintain drivers, consider using a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective will monitor your system for driver updates, and will track which updates are required for your particular system. In addition, it will download, install and back up any new drivers, and keep a fresh copy available on the system in the event that the driver software becomes corrupted, or is accidentally removed.

Driver Detective also takes the drudgery out of maintaining your system. You don’t have to remember to look for updates because Driver Detective does that for you, quickly and reliably, every time. More than 1,000,000 users have downloaded and installed Driver Detective. Download your copy today!

Photo Credit: Brad K, via Flickr