Number 298 - March 2008

Do Your Drivers Need Updating?
by Bill Allen, NOCCC
Have you installed new programs or peripherals recently? Seeing strange actions by your printer or display screen? Multimedia acting weird? You may need to update your computer drivers. Drivers are the software programs that interface peripherals with your operating system, including even certain "peripherals" located on your motherboard. While Windows includes drivers for most peripherals, they may not be the most current ones you need. That, plus degradation of your drivers during computer use, means you may need new drivers. For example, using the free scan provided by driveragent.com I counted over fifty drivers on my PC, ten of which needed critical updating.    There are a number of free driver scans on the Internet at such sites as www.driveragent.com mentioned above, driverguide.com, and at Driver Headquarters (www.drivershq.com) specifically for upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Interestingly, three other driver websites each sent me to driveragent.com for scanning and repairing my PC. It's not hard to see why - the Touchstone Software Corporation product at driveragent.com is simple, quick, and easy to understand. I decided to spring for the subscription fee ($30 for a one-year membership) to clean up my PC.    It was a simple four step process:    (1) run the scan to identify the deficient drivers shown with big red "X"s. (I had about ten, including four for USB alone.);	(2) the driver tabulation shows not only the state of each driver, but also any ready uploads, if available, as little floppy disk icons;    (3) just click the floppy icon and download the file which will be in either ".exe" or ".zip" format;    (4) finally, install each file just as you do any application program.    It took me less than a half an hour to download and install the drivers I needed. Once that was completed I ran the scan step again to verify I had updated all the drivers possible. It showed no red "X"s this time.    For more information on driver updating from people who know more about the subject than I do, try: http://www.cyberwalker.net/article/449. I learned I not only needed updated drivers, but I also needed guidance in which ones I should replace, where the drivers are made available (hopefully for free), and how to install them. Driveragent.com made the job simple, easy and quick. You will find keeping your drivers up to date, while important, can be relatively easy to do.    This article was produced with a PC having a 2.4 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, a 120 GB HD, a broadband cable Internet connection and a Brother HL-5240 laser printer.
Number 298 - March 2008