Before discussing when and how you can update your drivers, you must first know what a driver is. A driver is a software that bridges the communication between the computer and the hardware installed. Printers, keyboards, mice, and other hardware come in different forms and configurations and from different manufacturers. You can't expect every computer to be programmed to recognize the language of all the different hardware in the world. That's why you have to install a driver into your computer because basically, its job is to translate computer commands (ex. Print document) to a language that the hardware (ex. Printer) can understand. When you purchase a desktop computer, the distributor may have installed some drivers already and just give you the installation CD just in case you need it in the future. However, laptop computers already have built-in hardware with their drivers readily installed. The problem is that if the computer needs to be reformatted, you have to look for the drivers of each hardware installed for you to be able to use your laptop again. Now that you already have a clear grasp of what a driver is, the next thing you have to know is when you should update your drivers. As time pass, computers and their parts are constantly evolving and upgrading. With this, more problems arise as the driver goes out-dated and to some point, obsolete. However, this is not a strong reason to have a driver update. This matter needs a lot of thinking and researching in order for you to make a sound decision that you will not regret in the future. Here are a few reasons you may want to consider when you update your drivers. 1. You can choose to update your driver when your computer notifies you that there are available updates (ex. Windows Updates). However, you have to think about it carefully because sometimes, updates being released are still in the testing phase. Make sure you educate yourself first on the reviews of each update so that you'll know if you need it or not. 2. If you need a new feature in your computer, your old driver may not be able to support that; that's why you may need an update. For example, your media player doesn't support a certain file type, you may have to update your media player or your sound/video card until it recognizes and plays more file types. 3. As your driver slowly becomes out-of-date, some problems may eventually arise like slower responses or poor graphics. In these cases, updating your driver may be your first step in troubleshooting the problem. These are just a few thoughts on when you may need to update your driver. Just always remember to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this decision so that (again) you will not have any regrets in the future.
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