Maintaining Your Computer
53
Drivers
What Is a Driver?
A driver is a program that controls a device such as a printer, mouse, or
keyboard. All devices require a driver program.
A driver acts like a translator between the device and the programs that use
the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only
its driver recognizes.
Many drivers such as the keyboard driver come with your Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating system. You may need to install drivers if:
• You upgrade your operating system.
• You reinstall your operating system.
• You connect or install a new device.
If you experience a problem with any device, perform the steps in the
following sections to identify whether the driver is the source of your
problem and to update the driver, if necessary.
Identifying Drivers
1
Click the
Start
button and click
Control Panel
.
2
In the
Control Panel
window, under
Pick a Category
, click
Performance and Maintenance
.
3
In the
Performance and Maintenance
window, click
System
.
4
In the
System Properties
screen, click the
Hardware
tab.
5
Click
Device Manager
.
6
In the
Device Manager
window, scroll down the list to see if any device
has an exclamation point (a yellow circle with a [
!]
) on the device icon.
If an exclamation point is next to the device name, you may need to
reinstall the driver or install a new driver.
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