Driver concept. Driver backup

The computer you are currently working on has many components.

If you have a personal computer, then this is a stand-alone system unit (often called a processor, which is not entirely true), a monitor, keyboard, mouse, maybe a printer, video camera, speakers and microphone. May be something else. And all these components of a personal computer are connected by wires.

From devices invisible to us (hidden in the system unit) is a video card and a sound card, to which a monitor, speakers and a microphone are connected.

If you have a laptop, netbook or monoblock, then all of the listed components (well, almost all) are compactly combined into one case. But in any case, they are components of a computer.

So. For each of these components to work and work correctly, special programs are needed that allow these devices to function.

For example, a special program installed for the video card allows you to admire the screen of your monitor, the pictures on which have 32 million color shades and monitor flicker that does not irritate your eyes.

Moving the physical mouse in your hand across a table or mat causes the mouse pointer to move across the monitor screen in the same direction that you move the physical mouse. And these manipulations are also controlled by a special program.

When you press a key on your keyboard, exactly the character that is “drawn” on the key is printed on the monitor screen. And this character is printed exactly in the place that you specified. And this is also done by a special program installed on your computer.

And all these special programs are called drivers or device drivers. Essentially, this is device management programs.

So, I hope we got two answers to the question, “What are drivers, why are they needed?”, I hope. Now it remains to figure out how to install them.

I would rephrase this question a bit. Do I need to install drivers on your computer? And if so, how?

In most cases, you personally do not need to install drivers on your computer, and here's why.

If you bought a computer from a specialized store, then, as a rule, all the necessary drivers for your computer's devices are already installed and installed correctly (that is, they ensure the correct operation of your devices).

Even if you have to reinstall the operating system, you should not have very big difficulties with the drivers either. The distribution kit of the operating system (installation CD / DVD disk) has almost all standard drivers in its arsenal. And during installation, the operating system itself will determine what hardware is installed and install the necessary programs itself.

The latest versions of operating systems generally do things easier. If after installation it is found that the distribution kit does not contain the necessary driver, then the operating system “climbs” into the Internet, downloads the necessary driver and installs it. True, there is one subtlety here. The network must be configured and the Internet connected, i.e. The drivers for the network card should already be installed.

But in any case, when buying a personal computer, a disk with the necessary drivers must be attached to it. Well, if it's a laptop, then the installation files for restoring the operating system and drivers are usually written to a protected hard disk partition.

But, of course, there are situations when you yourself have to install drivers manually.

Here are a couple of examples. You have decided to change your video card (in a personal computer it is quite simple) for a new fancy one with some latest graphics accelerator for professional work with 3D graphics. Or bought a new MFP (multifunctional device - copier, scanner and printer - all in one).

In this case, a disk with the necessary drivers must be attached to the video card or printer. The disc is inserted into the CD/DVD drive. The program starts automatically with a "beautiful" menu with suggestions to install drivers and related software. Choose the programs and applications you need. You start the installation. After a while, the operating system will inform you that the drivers and necessary programs and applications are installed.

Okay, this is new equipment. But how to see what equipment is already installed and if there are any problems with the drivers? Are all drivers installed and, if not, how to install them?

In order to see what equipment is installed on your computer and in what condition it is, you need to “call” the Device Manager.

How the device manager is called, I will show examples for two popular operating systems from Microsoft - Windows XP and Windows7.

For Windows XP:

For Windows 7:

In the Device Manager window, you see a description of the devices installed on your computer. If you left-click on the “plus sign” (Windows XP) or “arrow (Windows 7)” opposite the description, then a description of which particular model of equipment you have installed will open.

It is from this window that device drivers are installed or updated.

If your list is “clean”, i.e. without yellow exclamation marks and red crosses, then all drivers are installed and working correctly.

It's a little worse if you see exclamation marks against the background of yellow circles in front of the devices.

This means that the driver is not installed correctly and conflicts with another device. In this case, you need to uninstall this driver and restart the computer so that it detects the device again and installs the driver again. If the exclamation mark remains after that, then you will have to look for the latest updated version of the driver for this device on the Internet.

And it’s not good at all if there is a red cross opposite the device.

This means that the "arsenal" of the operating system does not have a driver for this device in principle. So you need to look for a driver on the Internet, download it and install it.

A reasonable question may arise: how, what and where to look, if we have the most general idea about these same drivers.

Friends, today we will talk about one of the most important elements of any computer system - these are drivers for Windows (xp, 7, 8, 10). Probably, each of you at least once in your life independently installed the driver on your computer. To solve any problem, you must first deal with the subject area. In this article, I suggest that you decide what drivers for Windows are, what they are for, and what functions they have.

Driver(from the English driver - a driver that controls something) is software that allows you to organize the connection between the operating system and the hardware connected to the computer. When connecting any piece of hardware to a PC, the system requires an appropriate driver. Even for the same device, different operating systems require different drivers.

Although hardware manufacturers and OS developers do not work in the same team, we, buyers and users of computer equipment, unite them. This means that it is vital for them to “be friends”, i.e. look for compatibility solutions for new devices and operating systems.

For example, Windows has its own “default” driver database. Having bought a new video card and connected it, the operating system will try to establish contact with it and install a standard VGA driver. The system will boot up and you can continue using your PC.

This indicates that the OS has found a suitable driver in its database. The basic functions of the device will be available - the image on the screen will be. But all the features of the video adapter, such as 3D functions, will not be available. To fully work with the new device, you will need to install the “native” driver from the hardware manufacturer.

Purpose of the driver for Windows

The main purpose of drivers is to establish interaction between hardware devices and the operating system. But that's not all. In addition to performing their basic functions, drivers have a number of settings that have a significant impact on the performance of the system as a whole.

You can change the device operation parameters in the driver control window. Press " Start” –> right-click on the item “ A computer” –> select the item “Management” in the menu that opens –> in the right part of the window that appears, select ” Device Manager”(or find it by searching for windows) –> in the list we find the necessary device and double-click on it –> go to the tab “ additionally” and make the necessary settings.

Here you can also update them by searching on your computer (downloading in advance) or on the Internet.

Attention! I will introduce the particular importance of drivers for the operation of the OS and their impact on the overall performance of your computer, I advise everyone to update drivers regularly. Hardware manufacturers regularly post updates on their website that contain bug fixes and additional features.

Three types of drivers

Drivers for all devices can be divided into three types.

• 1. Special software (drivers) for system devices. This group of drivers includes programs that are responsible for interacting with computer components such as the processor, various controllers, data and clock buses, in general, almost everything that is located directly on the motherboard.

Without this group of drivers, the functioning of the PC is impossible. I am sure you understand how important they are for your computer, hence the conclusion that we will not configure anything in these programs. Making the wrong settings can lead to the collapse of the entire system.

• 2. Software for external devices. Everything is simple here, this includes everything that we connect to our computer from the outside: keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, USB flash drives, webcams, all gadgets, and everything that connects via USB.

Many of these devices are installed automatically. The system has a default driver, i.e. these devices can function. For some, the system will require you to find the driver yourself and specify the source for installing and configuring the equipment.

• 2. Expansion card software. I think you guessed that we are talking about video adapters, TV tuners, sound cards, network adapters and other components that expand the basic functions of the system and provide us with additional options for interacting with a computer.

This is the most important group of programs for us, since it is here that developers provide a lot of opportunities for fine-tuning the corresponding adapters. by making changes to the values ​​of the relevant parameters, it is possible to increase the speed and quality of the equipment. Don't forget to update them.

Alternative drivers for Windows (xp, 7, 8, 10)

There are many people on the Internet who are developing “their own” drivers for devices or improving their “native” ones. There are communities that share good solutions, competing with the device manufacturer, and sometimes significantly surpassing it.

The only “BUT” is the absence of any guarantee for the quality of alternative drivers. The user selects and installs them at his own peril and risk.

Alternative drivers, as a rule, are developed mainly to extend the functionality of devices such as video and sound adapters:

• Overclocking the video card (improving the performance of the adapter);
• Increasing the number of device settings to obtain the required quality of work (for example, a sound card);
• Adding other languages ​​to the device management program;

For the most part, a driver is a computer program with which the operating system gains access to the hardware of various devices, after which it is able to use them for their intended purpose. In general, most internal (accessories) or external (peripheral) computer devices will require a driver to use them.

Thus, almost every user during the operation of the computer, one way or another, is forced to face the installation of drivers in his system. For example, you bought a new printer, brought it home and plugged it into your computer. Although Windows will likely detect its connection and display the device name, it will not be possible to print to it until you install the driver that came with it.

The same will have to be done if you connect a scanner, camera or digital video camera, webcam, mobile phone, various manipulators and joysticks, as well as many other various external devices that can work with your PC. Yes, and in the case of the purchase and installation in your system unit of such components as: a video or sound card, a wired or wireless network card, all kinds of controllers and other expansion cards, you cannot do without drivers.

Of course, inside your computer there are a huge number of different electronic components and microcircuits, which are also defined by the operating system as independent devices.

In this picture, you can see only a small part of the devices detected by Windows and imagine that each of them requires the installation of a driver in order to work correctly. Probably, a logical question arises here: “So what, the user must independently install software for all these devices?”. Fortunately, this is not the case. In fact, the distribution kit of any operating system always includes a library with drivers, which, if necessary, are installed along with it. During installation, the OS scans your computer for installed devices and checks its library for suitable drivers. If there are any, then they are installed automatically.

In general, if the system in its distribution kit did not have a basic set of drivers, then its installation on the computer itself would be impossible. For example, this is why any installation of Windows begins with the unpacking of the basic software for the main components of the PC.

Typically, the required drivers are shipped with the hardware on a CD. Whether you're buying a desktop or laptop computer, an external peripheral, or internal parts, always check to see if a driver disc is included. Of course, not all separately sold devices require driver installation. For example, monitors, RAM, hard drives, optical drives, keyboards, mice and some other computer components do not need to install special software for normal operation in the system, but if you are not sure about this, it will not be superfluous to clarify this point with the seller . Also, on the disks that come with the equipment, there may be useful programs and utilities that make it easier to work with this device and expand its capabilities, which will allow you to get the maximum functionality from it.

If, for some reason, the driver media has been lost, then the latest versions of them can almost always be found on the Internet by downloading from the equipment manufacturer's website in the appropriate section. True, in order to get the right driver, you will need some specific knowledge of the parameters and characteristics of the device for which they are looking for, which can confuse an inexperienced user. To avoid such misunderstandings, try not to lose the driver disks that came with the device. Even if they contain hopelessly outdated versions of programs, it's still better than nothing.

WHEN SHOULD I INSTALL THE DRIVERS BY YOURSELF?

Let's see in which cases you still need the ability to install drivers yourself.

Installing or reinstalling the operating system on a desktop PC (system unit). We can say that this is the most difficult case. Although the OS distribution itself may have an impressive library of drivers, the chances that it will contain everything you need for your computer's devices are very small. This is especially true for components that were released later than the system itself. In Windows, you can check for unrecognized components by opening the Device Manager window:

• In Windows XP, click Start and select Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double-click the left mouse button on the "System" icon. In the window that opens, select the "Hardware" tab at the top, and in it "Device Manager".
• In Windows Vista 7, click "Start" and select "Control Panel". In the control panel, double-click the left mouse button on the "Device Manager" icon

If yellow exclamation or question marks are found in front of any devices, then they require mandatory installation of drivers.

Also, one should not forget that the drivers that are in the OS distribution kit become hopelessly outdated over time, because computer equipment manufacturers are constantly improving software for their products, while eliminating all kinds of errors and shortcomings. As a rule, installing the latest drivers has a positive effect not only on the operation of the target device, but also on the system as a whole.

Therefore, after installing a new operating system, for the internal components of the computer, it is recommended to install the latest versions of drivers that can be downloaded from manufacturers' websites. If the process of finding fresh versions is difficult, then it's time to prepare the discs that came with the equipment.

It is always recommended to start installing drivers with the software for the chipset (chipset), since it integrates almost all the most important system devices and computer components. Then, as a rule, the video driver (Video) is installed. Software for the remaining devices: sound card (Sound), wired/wireless network interface (LAN/Wireless) and various other controllers and expansion cards can be installed in any order.

After completing the installation of drivers for all internal devices, be sure to check the "Device Manager" for the absence of question or exclamation marks in front of any components. If everything is in order, then you can start installing software for peripherals (scanners, printers, webcams, etc.).

Installing or reinstalling the operating system on a laptop. As a rule, most laptops are sold with an operating system already preinstalled, which contains all the drivers necessary for it. If for some reason you decide to reinstall the system and return the laptop to factory settings, then in the vast majority of cases for this purpose it has a special closed section containing a distribution kit with the OS and all the necessary software. The user only needs to start the installation process (as indicated in the instructions for the device) and wait for it to finish.

But there are often cases when a laptop is purchased without an operating system or you decide to install an OS that is different from the one with which it was sold. In such a situation, you will not only have to install the drivers yourself, but in any case download them from the manufacturer's website, since you will not have any disks with drivers on hand, which in turn can greatly complicate life for inexperienced users. Another unpleasant moment for beginners can be the fact that laptops, as a rule, have many specific additional devices that require not only the installation of additional drivers, but also special programs for them.

Be sure, before starting the installation of your chosen operating system, make sure that the manufacturer's website for it generally exists software or if it exists, then in full. It is not uncommon for some laptop models to not support a particular operating system by developers. In this case, the set of drivers and programs may be incomplete, which will greatly reduce the functionality and stability of the mobile device. The only way out of this situation is to install drivers from enthusiasts or similar devices, but as you understand, without any guarantees of correct operation.

Connecting or installing a new device. During the operation of the computer, over time, you can expand its capabilities by purchasing additional peripheral equipment for it or even improve the internal stuffing. In most cases, after installing or connecting new equipment, for its normal operation, you will need to install a driver.

Installing newer versions of drivers to replace existing ones. As noted above, hardware manufacturers are constantly trying to improve the software for their devices, not only fixing various possible errors, but also optimizing it to work on various operating systems. In turn, this improves the stability of the computer components, and in some cases, expands their functionality and increases performance.

One of the most striking examples of the usefulness of updating drivers is the case with video cards, whose manufacturers are optimizing their software day and night not only to increase the performance of their products in new games, but also to eliminate all kinds of errors during operation. Thus, timely updating the driver for your video adapter will help you avoid unpleasant moments associated with possible "bugs" or crashes during the gameplay and may slightly increase the device's performance in certain applications.

In general, "crooked" drivers can have a very negative impact on the operation of any computer component, causing a persistent user dislike from endless "glitches" and problems during operation. As a rule, inexperienced users attribute all these troubles to a possible manufacturing defect in the device, trying to solve the problems that have arisen by contacting the warranty department. But in many cases, it is enough just to update or reinstall the driver in order to normalize the operation of the device.

Now, you probably already understand that the process of installing a driver into an operating system is an integral part of using a computer, and if you do not have a qualified assistant, then it's time to move on to the practical part, where we will look at how to install these same drivers.

INSTALLING DRIVERS

To simplify the perception of understanding the process of installing drivers, we will divide it into two parts. The first is the launch of the installation (until the driver installer window appears), and the second is the installation itself.

Let's look at three main situations, of which it is most likely that you will have to run the driver installation.

DISK INSTALLATION

The first case is installing a driver from a disk. There is nothing complicated in this method, except that it is only necessary to correctly select the desired disk. After installing it in the optical drive, if you have the autorun option enabled, a window will open in front of you in which you need to select a file to run. As a rule, it is called "...autorun.exe" or "...setup.exe" and has a manufacturer's branded icon. If such a window does not open automatically, then simply open the root directory of the disk through the explorer (or the "My Computer" icon), find the file with the above name (or similar to it) and run it by double-clicking the mouse.

Most developers try to make life easier for ordinary users and therefore provide their driver installers with colorful, and in principle understandable graphical shells. For example, this is how the interface from the installation disk from the MSI motherboard looks like.

A tab for drivers is selected at the top, and in the middle, windows with the names of devices contained on the motherboard (chipset, built-in video, wired network interface, RAID array, audio card, and others) are displayed, by clicking on which you can sequentially start installing drivers for the corresponding devices. As you can see, everything is simple.

And this is how, for example, the window for starting the installation of drivers for a video card looks like.

Here, to start the installation, just click on the "Install Drivers" option.

INSTALLING FROM ARCHIVE OR FILE

Case two - installing drivers from downloaded files from the manufacturer's website. As a rule, in order for such files to take up as little space as possible on the server, and for users to download them faster, their size is reduced by archiving. Therefore, before you start installing the driver from such a file, you must first unzip it.

The truth is here too, software developers have tried to make it easier to take into account inexperienced users. Try double-clicking on such a file, and most likely, the unzipping process will start automatically. You just have to specify the folder where the selected driver file will be unpacked. It is better not to unpack such files anywhere, but to create a folder for them on your hard drive in advance with a telling name, for example, “Drivers”. Firstly, there may be several of them, and secondly, they may be useful to you in the future, and this will greatly facilitate your search for them on your computer.

Here I would like to give one more piece of advice. At the moment when the folder for unpacking files is selected, you can easily rename the file itself. What for? Here is a live example.

In the picture on the left you can see the names of the downloaded Toshiba laptop driver files. Is anything clear? It's good if you just downloaded them, and remember which ones are for which devices. Well, or you need to install a complete set of drivers, in which case you can simply run all the files one by one. And if in a month, another, you need to reinstall the sound card driver? That's right, you'll have to look for it and download it again, because you won't be able to find it in such a list. That is why, do not be lazy, and try to name the files with meaningful names, as is done in the right picture, so that everything would be very clear later.

After unpacking the archives, in many cases the driver installation process starts automatically. If this did not happen, and you followed the previous tips, then finding the folder with the unpacked drivers on your computer and starting their installation directly from it will not be difficult for you. To do this, just double-click on the selected file.

In the first two cases, after starting the installation, the direct process of installing the software into the operating system will begin. In general, at the present time, almost any software, including device drivers, has installers with a graphical interface. The installation process itself, regardless of the software being installed, follows approximately the same pattern. As a rule, windows appear before the user, having read the contents of which, it is necessary to make some choice to continue the installation. After accepting all kinds of license agreements and choosing the initial settings, the process of integrating the application into the operating system will begin. The last step is usually to reboot the system. Let's see how this happens using the example of a quick installation of a video card driver.

Most likely, the first thing you will see in the installation program for most drivers will be a license agreement with the developers, if not accepted, further installation will be impossible. This is what happened in our example. Click the "Accept" button. Proceed".

In the next window, we are prompted to select installation options.

You will also often encounter a window of this type during the installation of various kinds of software. For inexperienced users, it is definitely worth choosing an express installation. It is also always recommended by developers, as it reduces user actions at the time of installation to a minimum. In this case, after pressing the "Next" button, the program will carry out all other settings in automatic mode and begin the installation.

With a custom installation, the user is given the right to select only the components he needs for installation.

In our case, we will leave only the graphics driver and click "Next", after which you just have to wait for the installation process to complete.

After the installation is complete, it is advisable to restart the computer so that all changes are accepted by the system and the driver works correctly.

INSTALLING FROM THE TASK MANAGER

The third case is installing the driver from the device manager. This method stands apart from the previous two, since in its essence it is completely different from them. It is worth noting that earlier drivers for computer equipment were not enclosed in auxiliary graphical shells, and this installation method was the most common. And now, many advanced users prefer this particular method, since in this case only device drivers are installed, without any auxiliary programs, beautiful graphical shells and other tinsel, which can significantly speed up the loading and operation of the computer and prevent unnecessary accumulation on the disk. software.

But even if you are an adherent of a simple custom installation using a graphical interface, this method can still be useful to you, for example, if after installing all the drivers you still find yellow question marks in the Windows Device Manager and have absolutely no idea what it is maybe per device. It is also not uncommon for installation discs to simply not have a graphical interface for launching the installation, and the driver itself also does not have a graphical installer. For example, this is often found in drivers designed for all kinds of controllers.

Having opened the "Device Manager" of Windows, select the device for which you plan to install or update the driver. For example, we will install the USB wireless network card driver.

We double-click the left mouse button on the device with a yellow exclamation mark. In the device properties window that opens, select the "Driver" tab.

As you can see in the figure, we can perform several actions with the device driver, but in our case (as well as in the case of updating the driver), we select the “Update” item.

In the window that opens, you can choose to automatically search for drivers, or specify their location on the computer manually. In our example, automatic software search did not return any results, but it is not surprising. We do not have a disk with drivers for this device, just as they are not on the computer's hard disk. The main hope was to search them on the Internet, but as a rule never gives positive results.

Well, you will have to spend some time to download the driver from the manufacturer's website. Having saved the found archive with the necessary software on the computer, we unpack it without fail. So, now we have a folder with drivers on our hard drive, and if we re-select automatic search, then most likely the installer will now find them and install them without problems. But since we know the location of the drivers, let's get acquainted with the second mode and after clicking on the "Update" option again, we will select the manual installation of the drivers.

In the window that opens, specify the path to the desired folder and click "Next"

After waiting for the device installation to complete, the driver update window can be closed.

As you can see, there have been changes in the device properties window. You can now see the device name and information about the installed driver. There have been changes in the device manager.

It can be seen that there are no more devices marked with yellow signs, and the name of the new equipment has appeared in the network adapters tab. All this tells us that the driver was installed correctly and the new device is working fine.

This concludes the article on drivers, and we advise you to practice to consolidate the material. For example, try to find the latest driver for your video card on the manufacturer's website and update the existing one.

Today we will continue to acquaint you with the basics of computer technology and tell you what a driver is and how to install it on a computer.

What is a driver

A driver is a program with which the settings of a particular computer equipment are made to its operating system. In other words, the driver is essentially the settings that help the operating system installed on the computer to recognize the connected device and ensure correct operation with its full functionality. Drivers are required for both the computer and the laptop.

Drivers, in addition to settings, carry various kinds of applications that simplify device configuration and expand their potential. Some drivers are bundled with the operating system, but, nevertheless, each device must come with a driver disk.

What devices need drivers?

Almost all devices connected to a computer that have a complex structure and need drivers. And this is both internal and external devices. Drivers are required for: video card, sound card, network card, motherboard, as well as for MFP, webcam, plug-in gadgets, etc.

• What is a video driver? This is a set of settings that helps the operating system organize the correct operation of the video card, while getting its maximum performance.


• What is a chipset driver? This is a collection of settings that allow the operating system to fully unlock the potential of the computer motherboard.


• What is a LAN driver? This is a setting that allows the operating system to work with a local network, both using a network adapter integrated into the motherboard, and a separate network card.

How to install the driver

In most cases, you will need to install drivers immediately after installing the operating system. Drivers can be installed both automatically (through the operating system update service) and manually.

In the Linux operating system, the vast majority of drivers are installed automatically, which is very convenient, but some still need to be installed manually. It is worth noting that for OS Linux, you will most likely have to download the drivers yourself (from the official website of the device manufacturer), since the disk often contains drivers only for Windows.

As for Windows, the drivers there can also be downloaded and installed through the update service, but this does not always happen, and if it does, the installed drivers do not always work correctly ..

It is best to install drivers manually by downloading them from the official website of the device manufacturer (rather than installing from a disk), since the site will have the latest versions of them. After downloading the driver file - run it, it will install itself in the right place.

Drivers are firmware that allows the computer to communicate with the devices installed on it, both external and internal, on which the user works. Each device has its own intermediary utility installed on the computer.

As for pronunciation, it will be correct to write and speak in the plural, like drivers. But in professional slang, drivers are most often pronounced, with an emphasis on the last letter

What is a driver

A device driver is specialized software that is used in all versions of Windows. Thanks to him, other programs and devices that are associated with this PC can interact with it. They are used during the operation of any equipment that is installed on this computer.

For example, if the operating system does not have a sound driver installed, then the user will not be able to listen to music or will watch movies without sound. If there is no video card intermediary utility, then the image will not appear on the screen. The toy will not start without the necessary utilities to work with your PC.

That is, the computer does not initially understand how to work with an external device that is installed in it. This requires a kind of translator or command interpreter.

What are the functions of intermediary programs

The first function of such an interpreter is registration in the system and initialization. Then the status of the equipment is checked. They can also log events that have occurred in the device that the firmware serves, process requests and errors, and combine incompatible equipment.

In addition, microprograms issue commands to devices while waiting for them to be executed. When you tell the printer to print, the firmware instructs the MFP what to print, which pages, and so on. That is, it fully controls external equipment.

Mediation utilities can process requests when previous requests have not completed. Manage the power consumption of other devices connected to the PC.

How drivers work on a computer

The work of the interpreter begins with checking the incoming values. If any incompatibilities are found, the error will be displayed on the screen, or, if everything is fine, the program will continue.

"Firewood" checks whether this device is connected at the moment. If the equipment is connected, then the firmware passes to control. Now you need to determine in what sequence to give commands to the equipment, and in what sequence it should execute them.

going on register entry controller of the device with which communication takes place. After the command is recorded, the transmission is analyzed. If the transfer went through without collisions, then the firmware proceeds to transfer the next command. And so on until all commands have been sent.

If some command is not executed, then access to the device is blocked and a person is expected to interrupt it. If everything is normal, then information about the data transfer is returned.

This is the principle of operation of intermediary programs on a PC.

What happens if there is no driver

Such similar firmware affects the quality, operation and performance of the computer and the equipment connected to it. If it happens that you installed the Windows operating system, and the installation of "firewood" was bypassed, then many external devices simply won't work on your personal computer, or they will work, but intermittently. Let's look at the example of a video card or a touchpad.

For example, if the driver for the video card is not installed, then the image quality will be very low. You will not be able to run games due to its absence. Same with the touchpad. In the absence of a control program, all the features of the panel will not be implemented, in particular, gesture control.

Multifunction devices will also refuse to work unless you install additional management software on Windows. Even an elementary connection of a mouse or keyboard, with gaming functions, will not do without installing additional firmware.

What devices need drivers

Most often, such firmware will be needed for the following devices connected to a PC:

• Mouse, keyboard.
• Video card, sound and network cards, any expansion cards.
• Chipsets.
• Printers and other connected external devices.

This is not a complete list. In fact, any internal and external peripheral equipment requires a control firmware.

Where to find them

When buying a printer, motherboard, video card, disks are included with them. They contain control programs from these devices. Therefore, you are obliged to check the availability of the disk and, in which case, demand it from the seller, since without such firmware, there is no point in the device. Of course, now there is the Internet, from where you can download almost everything. But for highly specialized equipment on the Internet, information may not be found.

If you have lost a disk or it has deteriorated, then such software can always be download from internet. To do this, in Google or Yandex, write the name of the device model and supplement with the words “download driver”. You will see several pages on which there are links to the necessary firewood.

There are special packages that contain all the firewood for any operating system. One of these packages is called "Driver Pack online". You can download it from the official website, the utility is quite large, about 12 GB. But after reinstalling Windows, it will help you a lot. A list and review of the best applications can be found on our website.

It is best to download from the manufacturer's website. The percentage that you will catch the virus is much less in this case.

Where can I find driver information?

In order to view the necessary information, the user should right-click on "My Computer" and select "".

After that, a window will open that displays all the equipment that is on your PC and to which it is connected. Under each item is a column with the installed firmware. If it is not present, then this device is marked with a yellow triangle.

You can read information about the firmware by right-clicking on the device and clicking " Properties».

This way you will get all the information you need.

Where are drivers stored on a computer

All drivers are located in the drivers folder. You can enter it by clicking on the "C" drive and open the Windows folder. In it, find another folder called "drivers" - this is where you can find control utilities.

This folder is present in all versions of Windows.