Home Reviews HowTo	Keeping your drivers up-to-date All peripheral devices, such as sound cards, video cards, and printers, require specific drivers in order to operate correctly. Basically a device driver acts as a translator between the device and the operating system. When your Windows 98/95 system was set up, specific device drivers were installed for every peripheral device in your system as part of the installation procedure. As long as the device continues to work, chances are that you never even think about the device driver.  This also means that you're probably using an older device driver.
	As things in the computer world evolve with new operating systems, new applications, and new hardware appearing every day, device manufacturers regularly release new drivers for their devices in order to keep them running at peak efficiency.
There are many types of devices and drivers out there. You need to exercise caution and common sense as you explore updating the drivers for the devices in your specific system. Before you attempt to update your device drivers, you need to know the version number of the driver your device is currently using. Having this information on hand will help you to quickly determine how old your device driver is and will make it easy to identify a new driver. Go into your Control Panel and select the Device Manager tab. Find a peripheral device category, such as Display Adapters, and double-click on it. When the tree opens, double-click on the specific device. You'll see the properties dialog box for the device. Click the Driver tab. When you open the Driver tab, you'll see the name of the driver's provider and the date of the driver. You'll also see two buttons labeled Driver File Details and Update Driver. If the Driver File Details button is active, you can click on it to open the Driver File Details dialog box for that specific device. You'll then see a list of the names and locations of the actual driver files as well as the name of the driver provider and the driver's version number. If you click the Update Driver button, Windows will launch the Update Device Driver Wizard. This wizard will allow you to search through the list of drivers that come with the operating system as well as allow you to install a new driver that you've already tracked down from another source. Newer versions of Windows will also allow you to search Windows Update site for new drivers. How to Track Down New Drivers The best place to begin searching for updated drivers is on the manufacturer's Web site. If you're unsure of the URL for the manufacturer's Web site, you can usually track down the driver at one of the many driver resource sites available on the Internet. WinDrivers.com Provides you with a collection of drivers and many ways to search their driver database.  You'll also find driver forums where you can get in on discussions about various drivers, and much more. DriverGuide.com At the DriverGuide.com Web site, which offers free membership, you can identify a component's manufacturer by using the FCC ID. The FCC ID is a set of numbers issued by the U.S. government that is on almost every piece of computer equipment. You can enter this number on Search page on the DriverGuide.com Web site and learn who manufactured the device. Once you do, you can use DriverGuide.com's four-step procedure for locating the driver. Once you've downloaded your new driver, you're ready to install it. First, shut down all running applications and log off the Internet. When you download a driver, you'll usually find detailed instructions in a ReadMe file that tells you how to install that particular driver. Many drivers come with a self installing program. Simply double clicking will install the driver for you. If the driver comes without self-installing program, you'll return to the Driver tab in the properties dialog box for the device and click the Update Driver button. When the Update Device Driver Wizard appears, use the Browse button to open the Browse for Folder dialog box and locate the driver files that you just downloaded. Select the installation file (usually an INF file) and click OK. Printer Drivers Installing updated printer drivers is different than installing other device drivers--you install the updated driver as if you were installing a new printer. You install the updated driver from the Printers folder, which you access from the Start › Settings menu. Once you're in the Printers folder, double-click the Add Printer icon. When the Add Printer Wizard appears, you'll proceed through the first couple of screens as you normally would. Next, select the Have Disk button, click the Browse button to access the Open dialog box, and then locate the driver files.