In the previous section of this tutorial, we made reference to the device drivers required by the installation of a new hardware device – in that case, an expansion card (specifically, the graphics card). Because device drivers are required by many hardware components in your computer, it’s important to understand what purpose they serve and what you need to do to keep them up to date.
A device driver is a computer program that is designed to interface with specific hardware devices, and to facilitate communications between that device and the operating system on your computer. Thus, device drivers are both hardware- and operating system-specific. When you connect a particular device to your computer – a printer, for example – the operating system of your computer must understand how to communicate with that specific hardware device. Device drivers facilitate this communications process.
Some of the required device drivers are supplied by the operating system and are installed when the OS is first installed. Other device drivers are supplied by the manufacturer of the particular hardware device, and are installed when that device is installed.
When the operating system is installed, the process of installing device drivers for the motherboard, keyboard, and other devices is transparent. However, when installing device drivers for other types of hardware (e.g., graphic cards, network cards, sound cards, printers, scanners, CD ROM and DVD drivers, and digital cameras), user intervention is required.
In most cases, the hardware device needs to be installed or connected to the computer before the device drivers are installed. We followed that guideline in the previous section when we stepped through the installation of a graphics card: first we installed the hardware, then the device drivers. There are a few exceptions to this, however, such as a digital camera using a USB port for downloading images to the computer. In this case, the software is usually installed on the computer before the camera is plugged in to the USB port. Be sure to check your documentation to learn what to do first.
Not only do the various hardware devices require their own specific drivers, but the exact driver required for that device varies according to the operating system that is installed on your computer. Thus, the driver required for your particular printer will vary depending upon whether you are running Windows XP or Windows Vista, for example. Over time, drivers are often developed that are compatible with multiple operating systems, but device driver development can lag behind other industry developments, such as the introduction of a new operating system (e.g., Windows Vista). As of this writing, if you’re using Vista, you will need to download the device drivers required by your hardware directly from the manufacturer’s web site.
However, device drivers are also continually updated by the manufacturer (to eliminate any bugs, expand compatibility, and so forth). For this reason, it is generally recommended that you download the drivers from the manufacturer’s web site rather than install from the CD that accompanies your hardware.