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Hardware Drivers What's the Best?
By Larry Miller
What is a driver anyway you ask? its a piece of software, that is written to control a specific piece of hardware. They can be written for a particular operating system like windows xp or windows vista. The main drivers that control the motherboard chip set and functions like usb are often included in the OS. When it comes down to sound cards and video, its best to use the manufacturers. The best drivers for windows xp or vista, would be ones that are certified by windows hardware quality labs,these are usually listed as WHQL drivers. For a popular sound card for windows xp that is made by creative labs the audigy or the soundblaster x-fI its best
to use only WHQL drivers. When installing a piece of hardware, windows will give a warning if the drivers have not passed the whql testing,
and the hardware might not work correctly if you continue with the unsigned driver install. For device drivers passing the WHQL tests, Microsoft creates a digitally signed certification file that, when included in the driver installation package allows installation on 64 bit versions of Windows Vista and prevents 32 bit versions of Vista, and all versions of Windows XP from displaying a warning message that the driver has not been certified by Microsoft. However, a company can choose to sign their own drivers rather than go through the WHQL testing process. These drivers would not qualify for the "Certified for Windows" logos, but they would install on 64 bit versions of Vista and install without a warning message on 32 bit versions of Vista and XP. Some hardware like old dial up modems, are hard to find
their certified drivers. Special web sites are devoted to
hardware drivers. Driverguide.com is one such site another is driverhq.com
these sites can be searched in different categories for the required driver that you need. Driverzone is another site that caters to the hardware driver seeker.
So if its marked WHQL, it has been tested by not only the manufacturer of the hardware, but also from Microsoft to be compatible and good working order with that version of the OS and hardware. |
Driverguide
| Driverhq
| Driverzone
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May, 2012
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