windows driver updates

A computer is composed of multiple subsystems. A basic computer has at least three hardware units:

1. CPU - central processing unit - the brains of the computer.


2. Memory - can be high speed like your RAM (random access memory) or very slow like tape on old main frames


3. I/O (input output) subsystem

Now Today's PC's are way more complex than the simple system described above but basically they have the above three systems. Today the I/O is extremely complex consisting of the graphic unit (video card), sound card, ethernet card, wireless card and so on.

Since now-a-days most computers are laptops most people don't even realize that there are all these subsystems inside. The point is that they are there. Another name for these peripheral (not the CPU or main memory) subsystems is device.

The devices are made by different manufacturers. The mother boards may be made by the same or other companies and the same system may have different operating system (different versions of Windows or UNIX on PCs).

The operating system manufacturer establishes device driver interface specifications and publishes them. The device manufacturers write little bits of low level (nearer to the hardware) software which talk to the specific hardware (ultimately at the chip level) and the operating system.

These are the device drivers and the different operating systems have different device drivers. Thus the same piece of hardware will need different drivers for Windows, UNIX and MAC OS. Of course if the CPU chipset is different you'll need different drivers even for the same OS. Also different versions of the same OS may or may not need different drivers.

There are many reasons that the device driver is updated. Among these are:

• A bug is discovered after the release.


• Operating system upgrades need device driver update


• Security holes discovered - hackers may use these security holes to damage you - it is very important to upgrade your windows device driver under these circumstance.


• The manufacturer discovers new things that can be done with the hardware - when I was a software engineer for a video game company often we discovered things that the hardware could be "forced" to do that the designers had not designed in the chipset. This may be important for the video card and some game may need a newer video driver update to run correctly.


• fix stability issues


• make compatible with newer versions of hardware - in this case you don't need to upgrade

First there is the manual method. Here is the way to do it for the video driver updates manually.

I do not recommend this way unless you know what you are doing because most people just don't and a freind had to spend $400 to restore her computer back after an upgrade gone wrong. Now if you are a techie (I was a software engineer for about thirty years and have written device drivers and designed the interface to an obscure settop box), it is trivial and takes a little time.

Even so when updating a whole group of windows drivers I recommend use of an automatic device driver updater.

Click to download free updater which I recommend. The download is free. It will scan your computer and let you know which of your drivers need updating. Then you update then manually if you know what you are doing and have plenty and plenty of spare time or pay to buy the license and allow Driver Robot to do its thing and update all your windows drivers in a matter of very few minutes.

I mentioned that even forgetting the dangers of messing up when performing windows driver updates, the time that you save alone makes it worth your while to buy an auto windows driver updater. The one I recommend is Driver Robot.

The reasons for this recommendation are many. Among them are:

• A constantly up to date database for all versions off Windows released since 2000. It is updated by continual spidering (searching the Internet like the search engines.


• Ability to scan a computer offline. Perhaps an old computer cannot be connected to Internet. The uniqueDriver Robot Exporter lets you save a driver analysis file on a computer without an Internet connection, and use it to download drivers from an Internet-enabled computer.


• Correctly identifies 100% of all consumer hardware devices.


• Driver Robot is more accurate, has more drivers, and better download performance than any of its competitors


• Free technical support from a team of experts who helped develop the product! 24-hour turnaround time.


• Guaranteed to be fully compatible with all versions of Windows including Vista 64-bit edition.


• Driver Robot can download the driver to your system even if it's not currently available on the manufacturer's website!

If you know what you are doing, go for it and update your windows drivers manually.

The upside - it costs nothing - may be fun even - especially if you are a masochist (many techies are - I remember building my own PCs many, many years ago for fun).

The downside - it takes time and can damage your OS like happened to my friend.

But if you don't know what you are doing and you don't have plenty of time to kill and you don't enjoy technical challenges I recommend you use Driver Robot.