Things that work are nice, especially when it comes to computers. In the world of technology, however, that’s often not the case. Just when you think you have everything working properly, something breaks or stops working. As a technician, this is one of the most common problems I face. A user had a working device, and suddenly, the device stops working.
There are a number of explanations, but one of the first things I check is the device itself. I make certain that the device is properly connected to the computer, has power and appears to be ready to get to work. If there’s nothing obviously wrong with the device, and I can see the device in the computer’s file system, the next thing I look for is a driver update.

Windows Vista May Not Find Your Driver Updates

Windows Vista can automatically download and install OS updates. Most people configure Vista to do this and assume that they’re covered for important updates, including drivers. That’s not a good assumption. Windows will install important OS updates, but driver updates may or may not make Windows’ list of must-have updates.

You could download and install all of the “important” updates for your computer, and still end up with an outdated or incorrect driver. That’s because Windows distinguishes between “important” updates and “recommended” updates. If you want Windows to install the recommended updates in addition to the important ones, you’ll need to reconfigure Windows Update.

From the Start menu, choose All Programs > Windows Updates. From the left side of the window, choose “Change Settings.” Don’t get confused about the “Install updates automatically (recommended)” button. That doesn’t mean Windows Vista will install “recommended” updates. That’s Microsoft’s way of telling you that they recommend that you install updates automatically.

At the bottom of the control pane, there is a checkbox labeled “Include recommended updates when downloading, installing or notifying me about updates.” Activating this box will tell Windows Vista to include updates to the OS that are recommended but not considered important to every Windows Vista user.

Future updates will include all important and recommended updates, including any new drivers that your computer may need. If you’re unsure about allowing Windows Vista to download and install drivers automatically, you can also configure Windows Update to download updates, but ask first before installing anything. Driver Detective can also help you locate, install and manage all of your computer’s drivers seamlessly.

Photo Credit: Edward, via Flickr

Windows Vista is the most modern operating system Microsoft has released. Having said that, Vista still must maintain compatibility with older applications and hardware. Over time, the authors of these legacy applications and older hardware may update their products or update drivers that may be needed to make their applications and hardware work with Windows Vista.

Windows Driver Secret

Once you install the upgraded driver, you may think that your problems have been solved. The new driver works, the hardware or software behaves like you think it should and life is good. (Except for one small detail that you may not even be aware of.)

Windows Vista keeps the old driver. On the surface, that may not seem like a dirty little secret, and if that’s the worst thing that Windows Vista does behind your back that’s probably OK. Unfortunately, a collection of old drivers can make life tough on your computer. The truly unfortunate thing is that “old driver problems” may not crop up right away, and it can become difficult to trace exactly what might be causing your troubles.
Fortunately, there are ways to manage your drivers, new and old. Driver Detective can automate the task of managing your drivers. It will search for and install new drivers, and remove old drivers so they’re not able to cause problems later on.

If you want to take a look at your collection of old drivers, Windows Vista gives you a way to do that. You’ll need to get to a command prompt to start.

From the Run box, type

devmgmt.msc

This will open the more user-friendly Device Manager. From the View menu, choose Show hidden devices. You’ll get an expandable tree-branch diagram showing the devices attached to the computer. Unused device drivers should be grayed out in the branch diagram.

Select the grayed out driver(s) and right click to pull up a contextual menu. You can either update the driver or uninstall the old driver. Before you decide that every hidden driver is unnecessary, understand that some hidden drivers belong to devices that you may plug into your computer only once in awhile. If you still plug the device in (could be a USB drive or a removable drive, a MP3 music player, etc.) you’ll want to keep the hidden driver! Using this method, old drivers can be safely uninstalled manually, preventing future problems and conflicts.

If you’ve upgraded to Microsoft Vista, or you have purchased a new computer with Vista already pre-loaded, you may find a few features that can help you locate and download the drivers you’re looking for. Of course, you can also use the Driver Detective to find, download and keep the correct drivers for your system up-to-date.

Windows Update will allow you to automatically download and install updates to the operating system, as well as new drivers that may be available for your computer hardware. Some users are suspicious of automatic update, but unless you’re absolutely rigorous about checking on the update status of the operating system and your hardware drivers, Automatic Update can help you keep on top of the additions and changes to your operating system.

Old Drivers Can Cause Problems!

Missing and old drivers can cause problems with your computer. Sometimes, updates to the operating system inadvertently break existing drivers, too. If you’ve recently downloaded an update to Windows Vista and installed it, and later find that something isn’t working right on your computer, the first suspect in my book would be an out-of-date driver.

Automatic Update can help your computer find the driver updates it needs for your hardware, and again, if Automatic Update doesn’t find your driver problem, or you don’t want to use Automatic Update, Driver Detective is highly recommended to find and download the drivers your computer needs to work properly.

To set automatic update, go to Start > All Programs > Windows Update. Choose Change Settings, then look to see whether Install automatically (recommended) is checked.

You can choose to have Windows download and install the recommended updates, or notify you about the availability of updates. If you want Windows to locate and install the drivers for your system, check the box at the very bottom of the Windows Update panel under Recommended updates. If this box isn’t checked, Windows won’t download any new drivers it finds.

Again, some users are leery of allowing Windows to update itself automatically. If this sounds like you, check the “notify” option and allow Windows to inform you that new drivers are available. You can check them out yourself and download them if you think they’re necessary.

Installing drivers like this can be time-consuming, especially after a new service pack or security update has been installed. Driver Detective is a great option for managing all of your drivers. You can set up Driver Detective, and once it’s configured, it will do all the work when it comes to locating new and updated drivers for your system.

In either case, you’ll be surprised by how well the system works and how few interruptions you’ll experience when you have the correct drivers available!

Photo Credit: Konstantin Merenkov

A new survey conducted by Dimensional Research shows that five out of six IT professionals don’t plan to upgrade to Windows 7 when the new OS is released sometime next year, and slightly fewer of the same respondents say they won’t upgrade to Vista at all, and will go directly to Windows 7 instead when they do their next upgrade. The survey was conducted among a variety of small, medium and large corporations and included IT professionals, IT managers and IT executives.

Some IT professionals expressed the concern that Windows 7 is just a revamped Windows Vista because Windows 7 is being built on Vista code. One of the issues that has plagued Windows Vista is the system’s memory usage. Another downside: the absence of software drivers.

Nearly three out of four respondents in the same survey said that they would be more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than they would be about staying with Windows XP, despite the fact that XP is outdated and no covered under Microsoft’s primary technical support. Microsoft says it will provide per-incident support on Windows XP through 2014, and will continue to patch the XP product indefinitely.

Home Users Take Vista, Business Users Stay Put

Home users have warmed up to Vista a bit, but Microsoft’s target market – the business users – remain cool to the ideal of upgrading, especially since Windows 7 is right around the corner. In terms of business computers, Windows Vista is operational on less than 10 percent of the deployed business machines. The company received strong pushback from Windows XP users, and agreed to continue selling licenses for the older XP product for a year after Vista had been available. Major manufacturers, including Dell, shipped Vista only as a customer option until XP licenses were no longer available, began offering Linux operating systems as a option to Vista.

The first Service Pack release for Vista, introduced in February, did resolve some of the performance issues. Microsoft is testing a second Service Pack release that it plans to make it publicly available sometime in the second quarter of ’09.

The company is also testing Windows 7 though it’s not clear that a solid release can help the company recapture some of its lost market share. In April ’07, when Microsoft debuted Vista, it held about 93 percent of the OS market; today that figure has shrunk to 88 percent. In addition to the market share slide, nearly 65% of XP users are still holding off on upgrading to Vista, more than two years after its initial release. Less than one-quarter of Windows users upgraded to Vista and the remaining 10%-12% of Windows users are sticking with products that pre-date XP.

Photo Credit: Microsoft