Initial Installation

• When you install a new piece of hardware in your computer, it is likely that you will have to install a device driver to support the device before your computer will recognize and use it. Most new pieces of hardware that require device drivers will come with a driver installation CD or disk that you can use to install a basic driver for your operating system. Typically all that you will have to do to install the initial driver is insert the disk, open it, and run an auto driver installation file, which will automatically install the drivers appropriate for your system. After the driver is installed, you will likely be promoted to restart your machine. Always elect to restart, since the device driver will not function properly until you do.
  
  It should be noted that certain hardware devices like mice, keyboards, flash drives and external hard drives can often be plugged into a computer USB port and recognized without the need for manually installing drivers.
  
  

Driver Updates

• Since device drivers govern the utilization of your system hardware, more efficient drivers that give better instructions can increase the performance of system devices. Hardware manufacturers often release driver updates from time to time, which better optimize their products for new computing applications. For example, a video card manufacturer might make modifications to their high-end video cards to specifically improve performance on a popular video game. Therefore, updating drivers from time to time is important to keep your system hardware functioning at a high level. You can update drivers in several ways. You can use the Windows automatic driver updates using the Device Manager, you can search for updates on your computer manufacturer's website, or you can search for updates at the website of the maker of the specific device. Updating the driver requires simply downloading a driver installation file, and running an auto installer similar to the ones on a driver CD. Make sure to install drivers intended for your specific operating system. Drivers are often not compatible between platforms like XP, Vista 32, Vista 64.
  
  

Driver Toubleshooting

• Device drivers play a critical role in the proper functioning of computers, and therefore are a common source of computer problems. An improper or malfunctioning driver can easily cause a hardware device to fail and may even cause your computer to crash. Bad device drivers are one of the most common causes of the "blue screen of death" that frequently appears when Windows-based computers crash. If you experience system crashes after installing new hardware or an updated driver, you should replace the driver immediately. For updated drivers, you can revert back to your old driver that worked before the crashes. Since bad device drivers can cause a lot of problems, you should avoid using drivers provided by third parties that are not provided by your hardware or computer maker.