What are Drivers and how to up date them.
Drivers are specific software programs written for computers that enable the interaction between a computer and computer hardware and devices. Sometimes the device drivers on your computer can get corrupted and stop working properly or not at all. This can cause things to stop working .
Things like the cd player, the mouse and keyboard , video card sound card , printers and much more rely on the correct drivers to work.
You can use Windows Update to locate and install the missing drivers required for the hardware or device connected to your computer to function properly.
You can also try to up date or reinstall the drivers manually via the windows device manager if you have the manufacturers disc that came with the hardware or you can often down load the software from the manufacturers website.Do not get it from on line down load sites that you have never use a a search engine to find drivers as they usually take you to sites that could send you corrupt or infected files .Always go to the manufactures site. The down side of updating manually is that you need to know the exact make and model and serial number etc of the product you want the drivers for as each driver is specifically written for that particular product a driver for a newer or older product even if it looks identical will more than likely not work and can cause more problems.
If Windows Update does not find the drivers you need,or you cant do it manually you may need to use a third-party program to locate the missing drivers for you. These third party programs use specific algorithms to search your computers hardware to work out what drivers are needed and then go on line to their own driver data base then down load and install the correct driver for you.
Using Windows Update to find drivers.
Use Microsoft's Windows Update to find the drivers missing from your computer before attempting to find the drivers using third-party software. Open the Windows "Start" menu, select "All Programs" and open "Windows Update" or visit the Windows Update website to open Windows Update. Click "Check For Updates" from the left-side pane in Windows Update and select "View Available Updates" to perform a search for all available driver updates for the devices installed on your computer. If the search returned with a driver that you are missing, select the driver and click "Install."
If Windows cant find the drivers then you may needed to use a third party software to find and up-date them.
I Have listed some good programs below and reviewed them. Click on the orange links to open a window to the software vendors website to learn more about each program.
Driver Detective
Driver Detective is a program designed by PC Drivers Headquarters to maintain your computer with the most recent available driver updates. Driver Detective searches for missing drivers and driver updates specific to your computer's hardware. Driver Detective can also be used to create backup copies of your drivers for safe storage on an external storage device. According to PC Drivers Headquarters' website, Driver Detective is compatible with Microsoft Windows 8,Windows 7, Vista, XP and 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating System (OS). Driver Detective requires that your computer have at least 256 MB of RAM, 22 MB of available hard drive space and a 300 MHz processor.
I have used this program on many computers for over three years now and it does a great job of finding the drivers your system needs and also installing them.
You pay for a one year licence for up to 10 computers (I have used it on many more than this in one year as I usually install it and register it then delete it after it finds all the drivers on my clients computers.) If you do run into any problems they are easily contactable and go out of their way to help you.Usually by a form on their site after you log in with your registration details they will also help via email but it takes a little longer.
Driver Genius
Driver Soft's-- Driver Genius is a program designed to optimise your computer's performance by finding missing drivers and driver updates specific to your computer. Driver Genius can be synchronised with
Driver Soft's Live Update driver database to provide convenient access to the most recent software driver updates available. According to Driver Soft's website, a large number of drivers are added to Driver Soft's Live-Update driver database every day. Driver Genius Professional Edition version 10 is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows.
Things like the cd player, the mouse and keyboard , video card sound card , printers and much more rely on the correct drivers to work.
You can use Windows Update to locate and install the missing drivers required for the hardware or device connected to your computer to function properly.
You can also try to up date or reinstall the drivers manually via the windows device manager if you have the manufacturers disc that came with the hardware or you can often down load the software from the manufacturers website.Do not get it from on line down load sites that you have never use a a search engine to find drivers as they usually take you to sites that could send you corrupt or infected files .Always go to the manufactures site. The down side of updating manually is that you need to know the exact make and model and serial number etc of the product you want the drivers for as each driver is specifically written for that particular product a driver for a newer or older product even if it looks identical will more than likely not work and can cause more problems.
If Windows Update does not find the drivers you need,or you cant do it manually you may need to use a third-party program to locate the missing drivers for you. These third party programs use specific algorithms to search your computers hardware to work out what drivers are needed and then go on line to their own driver data base then down load and install the correct driver for you.
Using Windows Update to find drivers.
Use Microsoft's Windows Update to find the drivers missing from your computer before attempting to find the drivers using third-party software. Open the Windows "Start" menu, select "All Programs" and open "Windows Update" or visit the Windows Update website to open Windows Update. Click "Check For Updates" from the left-side pane in Windows Update and select "View Available Updates" to perform a search for all available driver updates for the devices installed on your computer. If the search returned with a driver that you are missing, select the driver and click "Install."
If Windows cant find the drivers then you may needed to use a third party software to find and up-date them.
I Have listed some good programs below and reviewed them. Click on the orange links to open a window to the software vendors website to learn more about each program.
Driver Detective
Driver Detective is a program designed by PC Drivers Headquarters to maintain your computer with the most recent available driver updates. Driver Detective searches for missing drivers and driver updates specific to your computer's hardware. Driver Detective can also be used to create backup copies of your drivers for safe storage on an external storage device. According to PC Drivers Headquarters' website, Driver Detective is compatible with Microsoft Windows 8,Windows 7, Vista, XP and 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating System (OS). Driver Detective requires that your computer have at least 256 MB of RAM, 22 MB of available hard drive space and a 300 MHz processor.
I have used this program on many computers for over three years now and it does a great job of finding the drivers your system needs and also installing them.
You pay for a one year licence for up to 10 computers (I have used it on many more than this in one year as I usually install it and register it then delete it after it finds all the drivers on my clients computers.) If you do run into any problems they are easily contactable and go out of their way to help you.Usually by a form on their site after you log in with your registration details they will also help via email but it takes a little longer.
Driver Genius
Driver Soft's-- Driver Genius is a program designed to optimise your computer's performance by finding missing drivers and driver updates specific to your computer. Driver Genius can be synchronised with
Driver Soft's Live Update driver database to provide convenient access to the most recent software driver updates available. According to Driver Soft's website, a large number of drivers are added to Driver Soft's Live-Update driver database every day. Driver Genius Professional Edition version 10 is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows.