Device Drivers and Windows 8: What Does The Future Hold?

Windows 8 Isn’t Exclusively Mobile

Most of the press hype centers around Windows 8′s new mobile device capabilities, but you’ll still get a lot of use out of Windows 8 for your desktop setup. Windows 8 is designed – no doubt – to help users make the most of Windows on their mobile devices, though. Microsoft will be introducing a new mobile broadband framework that will help mobile users get connected to mobile broadband networks using one standard driver. By itself, that’s a big victory. Major mobile broadband hardware manufacturers have agreed to use Microsoft’s uniform driver, which should make connecting to mobile broadband networks a breeze.

It is safe to say that the writing is on the wall when it comes to mobile devices. Consumers love them, and there will certainly be more mobile computing in just about everyone’s future. While Windows 8 is getting prepared to deal with the onslaught of Windows mobile phones, tablet computers and laptops, the “traditional” computer setup will still be around. That means you’ll still see plenty of need for device drivers for these kinds of computer setups – and some mobile devices will also need device drivers, too.

It also means that Windows 8 will represent a significant change in the way the operating system works. It won’t be just an extension of Windows 7, and it does mean that some of your current hardware may not make the transition to Windows 8.

As in the past, Microsoft will carefully shepherd vendors through the process of creating and testing their hardware drivers, and making them available on D-Day, whenever that might be. Microsoft has not yet named a shelf-date for Windows 8, but it’s still rumored to be available for consumer release in the fourth quarter of 2012.

In the mean time, what should you do? It’s never a bad idea to make sure all of your device drivers are up-to-date. I normally use Driver Detective to manage all of my device drivers. Driver Detective seeks out, downloads and installs updates for the drivers that are installed on my computer. It also keeps a fresh copy of the current driver and allows me to roll back to an older version of a driver if an update doesn’t perform the way I think it should.

Driver Detective takes the work out of keeping your Windows hardware drivers up-to-date.

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Kernel Mode Drivers Still Vulnerable in Internet Explorer 9

What’s In A Windows Driver?

If you don’t know much about computers (and don’t really want to) this post might not hold much interest to you. In that case, just apply the latest set of patches and go on with your life! If you like knowing how things work, or why things are the way they are, knowing the difference between a kernel-mode driver and a user level driver might give you something to think about.

The Windows operating system is designed to work with different security levels. The level with the most security is the user level. The user level operates in a way that isolates it (for the most part) from other parts of the operating system. That’s good because poorly written code at the user level can’t really have much of a negative impact on the rest of the system. The price for that, however, is reduced performance. Software (including drivers) that operate at the user level are slow, and require a lot of “overhead.” They take time to do what they do because they have a lot of hoops to jump through to access the functions at lower, less secure and more powerful levels of the operating system.

In contrast, drivers that operate at the most powerful level – the kernel level – are fast, but speed also comes with a price. The price of this speed is that a poorly written (or malicious) driver can crash the whole system. Since the kernel is the central part of the operating system., it has the most privileges and does the most important work. It also needs to be protected carefully – not just from malicious individuals, but also from bad programming, which can cause the entire system to malfunction and crash.

Programming that operates at the kernel level must be correct, secure and uncompromised for things to work out right. When bad programming is introduced at the kernel level, it can grant access to malefactors who want to take control of a computer, defeat built-in security measures, and steal sensitive information. The kernel is the fastest and most powerful operating level precisely because it doesn’t have the controls and security measures in place that higher levels of the OS have. The kernel is supposed to be protected by the higher levels of the OS, and its access is supposed to be strictly limited.

In my next post, I’ll talk about the differences between kernel-level drivers and user-level drivers, and take a look at which kinds of hardware drivers operate at each level.

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Backing Up and Restoring Windows Hardware Drivers

Know What You’re Backing Up and How To Access It

If you ask a user how to back something up, s/he might be able to tell you how to set up a backup, or even where the backed up data are stored. That’s good, but the step few users (and technicians for that matter) take is learning how to restore data from a backup. When a restore is needed, amazingly few people can actually correctly and completely restore data, even if the restored data are intact, ready and waiting.

Why is this important? Having a backup of your data (whether they’re application data or system data) can save significant time, effort, expense and aggravation. Knowing where the backup is stored and how to restore the data is critical. Why even have a backup if you don’t know how to restore the missing data?

When it comes to system data, few users can tell you even simple things, like where the hardware drivers are stored. For the record, drivers are stored in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\DriverStore folder. You can make a backup of this folder “by hand” by simply copying the contents of the folder to another folder, or better yet, a removable storage device. If you ever need to reload or replace the driver, you have a fresh, working copy available.

You might argue that this step is unnecessary, since you could go to the manufacturer’s website to download the correct driver. That assumes you have Internet connectivity. If you’re having driver problems or system problems, you can’t assume that you’ll have access to any network, so it’s best to keep a backup of your Windows hardware drivers handy.

For me, the better way to back up drivers – and to manage the entire hardware driver process – is to use Driver Detective. Driver Detective monitors all of the drivers installed on your computer, and stores a backup copy, in case a driver becomes corrupted or goes missing. Driver Detective also looks out for updated drivers, retrieves them and installs them for you. Download your copy of Driver Detective today and see for yourself what a difference it can make!

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Graphics Drivers Hold Up Intel's Windows 7 Certification

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.

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Aussie Document Reinforces Update Importance

Document Stresses Importance of Updates

Running outdated software (including hardware drivers) and the unauthorized loading of rogue drivers constitutes a significant security threat. Users who are unaware of the drivers that are installed on their computers run the risk that their computers will be compromised, most often with no appreciable signs of the intrusion.

Maintaining awareness of the drivers that are required can help users recognize drivers that don’t belong, and can hasten detection of an intrusion or an intrusion attempt. Host-based intrusion detection systems monitor activities that could be considered suspicious. These activities include process injection, keystroke logging, driver loading and call hooking.

By itself, driver loading isn’t suspicious, but the report underscores the ways in which clever hackers can take advantage of operating-system architecture to gain access to system-level operations. It also underscores the importance of routine driver maintenance.

One way in which you can control the drivers that are loaded on your computer is by running a driver management program like Driver Detective. Driver Detective keeps track of the drivers that should be loaded on your system and routinely monitors their performance. If a driver goes bad, Driver Detective will download and install a fresh copy. Driver Detective will also notify you when new or unrecognized drivers are being loaded. If Driver Detective manages all of the bona fide drivers on your system, new (and possibly malicious) drivers will be easy to spot.

Downloading and installing the current version of a driver also helps protect your system against vulnerabilities that may have been discovered by hackers. Driver Detective routinely checks for new or updated drivers. When it finds a new driver, it downloads and installs it, and backs up the new driver. It also gives you the option to roll back the upgrade to the old driver if the update doesn’t work properly or causes other problems for your system.

A program of regular hardware driver updates is a great way to ensure that you keep your system as secure as possible.

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Microsoft Urges Migration To Windows 7

Support Won’t Last Forever

Sales of Windows 7 remain strong, driven in part by the sales of new PCs. Upgrade remains a problem for enterprises that opted out of the Vista intermediate step. Missing out on the Vista upgrade meant that critical portions of the underlying Windows 7 infrastructure were not loaded. Since there’s no direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7, those who skipped Vista are in for a complete reload.

That’s one part of the problem on the enterprise level. Many enterprise customers aren’t willing to roll out Windows 7 on old computers, and have opted to do a more controlled rollout over a longer period of time. Second, the development of Windows drivers for some hardware remains a stubborn issue. For enterprises, migrating to Windows 7 may also mean significant investments in replacement third-party hardware that’s not currently supported under Windows 7.

The same concerns are true for individuals who have not yet upgraded from Windows XP or some earlier version of the operating system. An upgrade to Windows 7 may require more than simply licensing the operating system. Peripherals that work well with an earlier version of Windows may not be supported under Windows 7.

There are some ways to overcome this, however. Windows 7 does support emulation, and provided that emulation support is also built into your hardware, you may be able to emulate an older version of the Windows operating system, complete with drivers, to ensure that your unsupported hardware is still accessible.

For individuals who are considering upgrading, or who must upgrade for other reasons, check with the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to determine whether your peripherals are or aren’t supported under Windows 7. You may not have a good workaround for your unsupported Windows hardware, but at least you won’t be surprised and can plan a workable alternative before you upgrade.

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Hardware Driver Problems Culprit In Two Of Top Five USB Complaints

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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Catalyst 11.5 Driver for Windows Now Available

Keeping Your Drivers Updated

Knowing when to update a driver for Windows is sometimes as hard as knowing how to do it. When a new driver version doesn’t address issues that a user has experienced, it’s difficult to know whether the driver update is really necessary. I’d like to suggest that, in the absence of a reason NOT to update the driver, downloading and installing a new driver is indeed, a good idea.

Unless you know that you require a specific version of a Windows driver for some reason, updating your Windows driver should be part of your normal maintenance routine. Everyone has heard stories about the “cure” being worse than the disease. This is especially true when it comes to Windows. Updates designed to fix one problem seemingly create another, worse malady that could have been avoided if the update were never installed.

So what’s the incentive to update a Windows driver that isn’t strictly necessary for a particular user? Keeping your drivers updated means that you’re extending the manufacturer support on your equipment. If you have difficulty and contact the manufacturer for technical support, the first thing they’ll tell you is to download and install the current driver.

Subsequent driver versions you may need will require the updated driver anyway. (In most cases, you’ll get all the updates when you download the driver that has the revisions you need.) In the event they don’t, you may need to do more than one driver installation to get yourself squared away.

If downloading and installing drivers doesn’t sound like a blast, you’re right. It’s not. Finding drivers, downloading and installing the correct one, checking for proper operation, removing old drivers… it’s all time consuming and not in a good way.

I recommend Driver Detective because it can take over your driver management chores. When a new driver is made available, Driver Detective will download and install it. It will also disable and remove the old driver, and make a backup copy, in case you want to revert to the old driver, or need a fresh copy of the driver for some reason. Driver Detective will monitor the operation of the driver and replace drivers that have become corrupted or have gone missing.

It’s a time-saving, labor-saving software and it’s definitely worth considering for your computer troubleshooting toolkit.

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Windows Update May or May Not Include Updated Drivers

The Long And Short Of Windows Updates

Microsoft works closely with hardware vendors to ensure that hardware drivers are updated correctly and consistently. That doesn’t mean Microsoft has any sway over businesses that don’t update their Windows drivers, and it doesn’t mean that you’ll get your Windows driver updates through Microsoft when the hardware vendor makes a new driver update available.

That leaves users in the same position they’ve always been in: if you get your driver updates from Microsoft, apply them, but don’t assume that because you didn’t get a driver update from Microsoft that there are no driver updates for your hardware.

Ultimately, you need to check with the hardware manufacturer to determine whether or not a Windows driver update is available, and if one is, does it apply to your computer.

I’m not sure which is worse: not updating drivers at all, or applying the wrong driver to your system. I tend to think that going without driver updates will eventually catch up with you. On the other hand, applying the wrong driver may sink your system quite neatly, or it may not permit your hardware to interface with the computer correctly in all (or any) circumstances. Either way, the outcome seems similar, doesn’t it?

Driver updates are motivated by a couple of reasons. Either the OS manufacturer has updated something that has “broken” an existing driver. In that case, you’ll know about your driver problem immediately after you install the system update and your hardware stops working.

Another major motivator behind driver updates is bug fixing. If you have hardware and it fails to operate under certain conditions, the failure might be the result of faulty or incomplete programming on the part of the manufacturer. These driver problems express themselves typically as hardware failures or function failures under certain circumstances. You want these updates because you want to have access to the full range of your hardware’s capabilities.

I don’t rely on Microsoft to find driver updates for my hardware. I use Driver Detective to locate and install new drivers. Driver Detective also stores a backup copy of each driver, and can tell if a driver has become corrupted or is missing. Driver Detective does the work associated with finding the correct hardware driver, and I can be sure that my Windows hardware drivers are always up-to-date.

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Getting The Most Out Of Windows Hardware Drivers

Driver Management Software Is One Solution

For most people, there is little point in trying to troubleshoot hardware drivers beyond “It’s the driver.” That’s because the hardware manufacturer writes hardware drivers, and most users don’t have the proper tools or source code access to “fix” a broken driver.

Drivers “break” for a wide range of reasons. You’ve added a new driver that conflicts with an existing piece of hardware. You’ve updated your operating system and the existing driver no longer works properly. No changes have been made to either the system or the hardware, but the driver has become corrupted by some other means. The driver was accidentally uninstalled, damaged or thrown away. (Yes, that happens.)

Regardless of how it happens, a broken driver is like a broken chair – it has very little utility and the likelihood of fixing what you have is minimal. How do you know when you’ve encountered a driver problem? First and foremost, your hardware stops working, or stops working correctly. If your system doesn’t even “see” your hardware, one of the prime suspects should be the driver.

Operating system upgrades can render an older driver useless. If you upgrade your system, apply a patch or a service pack and then find that your hardware doesn’t work, check for a driver update from the manufacturer. If one is available, install it and see if that corrects your problem.

If it doesn’t, you may be able to find a generic driver that comes with Windows that will give you some satisfaction. Don’t bet on it, though. The drivers that come loaded with Windows may not be able to communicate completely, successfully or perhaps even at all with your hardware. Special functions that your hardware can perform will almost certainly be disabled without the correct hardware driver.

You might be able to use the generic driver to confirm your suspicion that your problems are related to the driver. If you can “see” the problem hardware using a generic driver – even if it doesn’t work properly – you’re likely dealing with a corrupted driver.

I find that driver management is among the most tedious of PC maintenance tasks. I use and recommend Driver Detective to locate, download, install, monitor and back up my installed drivers. Each time a new driver is released, Driver Detective will get it and install it, reducing the likelihood that I will be without the up-to-date services of the hardware drivers my PC needs.

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