UPDATE YOUR DRIVERS

KEEP YOUR DRIVERS UPDATED

 Due to the evolutionary nature of PCs, driver updates are quite common. The pressures involved in getting hardware to the market place, along with the wide variety of PC configurations out there, make it impossible to thoroughly test drivers in all collections before they are released. Once the hard ware is generally available, any problems are soon reported, and fixes make available in the guise of updated drivers.

Driver updates can also be used to introduce new features or improve performance, but on the whole, they are the result of bug fixes, which is why most hardware gets most of its updates in the first six months after release.

SIGN THEM OFF

As you’d expect with this haphazard approach, drivers gained a reputation for being the culprit behind many Windows crashes and error messages. Microsoft estimates that 40 percent of such problems can be traced to poorly written drivers that make illegal calls to Windows, or take resources without seeing if they have already been assigned elsewhere. It was this practice that led Microsoft to introduce the concept of signed drivers and ‘sign’ those that behave themselves properly, so you’re aware those drivers should be trouble-free.

One of the problems with this approach is that Microsoft charges hardware manufacturers to perform this test, so many are either unable to afford the cost of getting their drivers signed, or unwilling to commit to the test. Many manufacturers do eventually submit updated drivers for testing, but often they’ll wait until they’ve iron out many of the bugs first, so they only incur the cost of getting their drivers signed once.

Because the choice is the order of the day, XP will allow unsigned drivers to be installed on your PC, but by default, it’s set to warn you whenever you attempt to install one. You can switch this warning off – or conversely block all unsigned drivers – from the Hardware Tab in the System Properties actually recommend you leave things the way they are – most unsigned drivers will work perfectly with your machine, with no problems. XP also creates a System Restore Point whenever you install an unsigned driver when the Warn option is selected – just in case.

Getting Updates

So how do you update your drivers? There are two main ways of doing so. Many generic driver updates that have been signed by Microsoft are put on its Windows Update site, and can be downloaded and installed through that. All others are found at the hardware manufacturers’ own websites.

When downloading a driver from your hardware manufacturer, make sure you’ve got the right one for your model, and that its Windows XP driver. If your manufacturer is diligent enough, it may provide you with release notes that tell you what bug fixes and extra features the driver updates provide, which can often reassure you that the update will fix the problem you’re having.

You may also find that the driver comes with its own installer, so all you need to do is downloaded the EXE file and double click it for the drivers to be automatically updated. Don’t worry if it doesn’t, though.