Once you have the make and model details for a device you’ll be able to find the correct driver on the manufacturer’s Web site. When you click on the file containing the driver package, your Web browser will prompt you to run or download the file. Select Download and then specify a folder on your computer to save it to.
Computer software is constantly being updated. Antivirus programs update daily to protect our computers. Microsoft releases regular updates and service packs for it’s Windows operating systems. Just as software is updated regularly, so should our drivers be. New drivers may provide additional functionality and compatibility with new applications or they may just fix a problem that was found in the older driver release. An outdated driver can cause problems ranging from lock-ups, incompatibility or even total system failure. There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of an important task when your computer locks up, causing you to lose valuable data. Unless you update your drivers regularly the odds are that your PC will be slower or more likely to crash, or will have problems connecting with peripherals. Your computer has no way of knowing how to communicate with the devices attached to it. A device driver acts as a translator between a device and the applications and operating systems that use it. Each device requires it’s own specialized commands to function. Your applications will send generic commands to your devices and the device driver will convert them into the specialized commands required by the device.
Human Interface Device Drivers – Human interface drivers are used for input devices that humans use to interact with the computer such as keyboards, mouse devices, trackballs, joysticks, pointers, and game pads. Always make sure you have ALL the drivers your system needs. Missing drivers can cause hardware failures and it is often hard to find the problem. You can also use the Search option in Device Manager to find updated device drivers if you don’t want to do it manually. Simply follow the above instructions but this time choose the Search option. Device Manager will search the Internet for updated device drivers. Once found, follow the prompts for installing the new driver.
Windows 95/98/ME/XP/Vista as well as Windows NT/2000 Professional come with built-in drivers and often will automatically install a driver when a new device is added if the driver is already in the Windows driver library on the machine.
By running a scan of your computer with Driver Detective you are quickly able to detect which drivers need to be updated. The scan takes less then 5 minute and would let you know how many outdated drivers your computer has.