Working with Device Drivers
For most users, device
drivers exist in the nether regions of the PC world, shrouded in
obscurity and the mysteries of assembly language programming. As the
middlemen brokering the dialogue between Windows 7 and our hardware,
however, these complex chunks of code perform a crucial task. After all,
it’s just not possible to unleash the full potential of your system
unless the hardware and the operating system coexist harmoniously and
optimally. To that end, you need to ensure that Windows 7 is using
appropriate drivers for all your hardware. You do that by updating to
the latest drivers and by rolling back drivers that aren’t working
properly.
Checking Windows Update for Drivers
Before
getting to the driver tasks that Windows 7 offers, remember that if
Windows 7 can’t find drivers when you initially attach a device, it
automatically checks Windows Update to see whether any drivers are
available. If Windows 7 finds a driver, it installs the software
automatically. In most cases, this is desirable behavior because it
requires almost no input from you. However, lots of people don’t like to
use Windows on automatic pilot all the time because doing so can lead
to problems. In this case, it could be that you’ve downloaded the driver
you actually want to use from the manufacturer’s website, so you don’t
want whatever is on Windows Update to be installed.
To gain control over Windows Update driver downloads, follow these steps:
1. | Select Start, type systempropertieshardware, and then press Enter. Windows 7 opens the System Properties dialog box with the Hardware tab displayed.
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2. | Click Device Installation Settings. Windows 7 displays the Device Installation Settings dialog box.
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3. | Select the No, Let Me Choose What to Do option. Windows 7 displays the options shown in Figure 2.
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4. | You have three choices:
- Always Install the Best Driver Software from Windows Update—
This is the default settings and it tells Windows 7 to go ahead and
locate and install Windows Update drivers each time you attach a new
device.
- Install Driver Software from Windows Update If It Is Not Found On My Computer—
Activate this option to tell Windows 7 to only locate and install
Windows Update drivers if it doesn’t find a suitable driver on your
system. If you want to control Windows Update driver installation, this
is the ideal setting because it prevents those installs when a driver is
available locally.
- Never Install Driver Software from Windows Update— Activate this option to tell Windows 7 to bypass Windows Update for all new devices. Use this
option if you always use the manufacturer’s device driver, whether it’s
on a disc that comes with the device or via the manufacturer’s website.
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5. | Click Save Changes.
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Updating a Device Driver
Follow these steps to update a device driver:
1. | If
you have a disc with the updated driver, insert it. If you downloaded
the driver from the Internet, decompress the driver file, if necessary.
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2. | In Device Manager, click the device with which you want to work.
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3. | Select
Action, Update Driver Software. (You can also click the Update Driver
Software button in the toolbar or open the device’s properties sheet,
display the Driver tab, and click Update Driver.) The Update Driver
Software Wizard appears.
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4. | You have two choices:
- Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software— Click this option to have Windows 7 check Windows Updates for the driver.
- Browse My Computer for Driver Software—
Click this option if you have a local device driver, whether on a disc
or in a downloaded file. In the dialog box that appears, click Browse,
and then select the location of the device driver.
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Rolling Back a Device Driver
If an updated device driver is giving you problems, you have two ways to fix things:
If updating the driver was the last action you performed on the system, restore the system to most recent restore point.
If
you’ve updated other things on the system in the meantime, a restore
point might restore more than you need. In that case, you need to roll
back just the device driver that’s causing problems.
Follow these steps to roll back a device driver:
1. | In Device Manager, open the device’s properties sheet.
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2. | Display the Driver tab.
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3. | Click Roll Back Driver.
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