Types of Device Drivers

What are Device Drivers?

"Device drivers" are programs that serve as communication pathways between the computer operating system, the software applications and the various hardware components installed on the PC or laptop.

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Drivers basically act as "translation programs" that convert the instructions and requests that you make when using a software applications (i.e. MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Photoshop, FireFox, DivX) to a language comprehensible for the hardware device (i.e. sound card, graphics card, printer, camera, monitor, DVD drive). The hardware device then executes the instruction from the driver and prints pages, downloads image files, plays music, displays an image or otherwise completes the task you have asked of the hardware device. Without the proper device driver, hardware components installed in the system will work poorly or not at all.

Types of Device Drivers You Should Know About

Device drivers are coded specifically for the hardware component that it is designed to function with. Every device or hardware component installed in your computer system requires its own set of drivers to operate properly. The average PC or laptop will contain dozens of very specific drivers simply to perform the most basic of functions - more advanced PC or laptops may contain more. There are literally thousands of different drivers designed to support each computer configuration; however, there are some hardware components that can function using the basic drivers installed by Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows® 7 and they include:



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