How to Speed Up Your PC
Tips and extraneous factors Č Did you know that there are thousands of Windows users who have met with this driver interoperability issue? Weren’t you aware that most of the problems that you face with your hardware are not due to the big Windows operating system itself but due to problems with your system files, registry, and even third-party drivers? Weren’t you surprised to find out that fixing your registry and installing driver updates manually is not very simple? If you were still not aware of what a Windows operating system is or what a driver is, then here goes.
What is a Driver?
Drivers are hardware components, which are written in Basic Programming, which enable the installed hardware or software application to function versatile hardware – printers, scanners, DVD players – all these devices require driver software.
A driver is a set of files that are compiled and installed in the computer, accessible mainly through the Device Manager. The Driver is an application that controls the functioning of the associated hardware. In order to control the functioning of a hardware device, you need a driver. These files are an integral part of the Windows Operating system, without drivers Windows simply would not be able to function. However, keeping in mind the critical role of drivers in the functioning of the Windows Operating system, Microsoft does not allow its users to manually install or update them.
Why don’t you just install them automatically?
I guess you could guess this question, but if you are a computer novice this answer is not much easy to give. Computer users may think that they would not need to install driver software because the automatically installed driver software would be able to make everything work with the operating system. This, however, is not always the case. This also does not address the security issue. Would you trust your sensitive data to some unknown computer users? Even if the software is from Microsoft itself, there is still no guarantee that it is safe. Many third-party companies do little to ensure that their software is free from bugs and other issues.
In any case, if you want to improve your computer’s performance without having to spend a lot of money on a new computer or upgrade your hardware, then you can follow these simple steps to speed up your system.
Driver Checker
Once the hardware and software are working properly, the most effective way to improve your system’s performance is to install the most up-to-date drivers that suit your computer’s needs. With a driver checker, you can scan and download the latest drivers for every device on your computer. The driver software checks for compatibility, and if you install a new driver it will check and offer to update it. The driver software also offers other kinds of useful features like memory monitoring, startup saving, device management, scan log monitoring, and so on.
Driver update software is available from reliable software companies. You can download and install it immediately. Just make sure that you download the exact version of the driver that is compatible with the device. There are some USB devices that cannot be updated by the generic USB driver. You will need a customized USB driver.
Free Driver Updates
There are a lot of websites offering free driver downloads. Sometimes, these may be useful. However, you should be extremely careful when downloading and installing drivers online. Most of the time, you will download a version that does not work properly or even a version that might contain a virus. This would be in your computer’s systems. If you get a virus on the USB flash drive, you may lose all your data. A mistake made online could wipe out your hard drive. This is why you should be very careful when sites offer free downloads. If you absolutely need to have a certain driver software installed, you can purchase the CD through the Web site. Just make sure that you are aware of all the contents of the CD.
Search Engines
If you don’t know where to get one, you should go to Google. There are a lot of search engines that have device drivers. You can go there by using the keyboard shortcuts or the F7 key. So, what you need to do is to type in “main driver” or “driver” and you will get plenty of results. Here are some important ones to be aware of:
• OEM based drivers: These are the most commonly used drivers. You will get many OEM-based drivers for your system. Sometimes, these are not updated and not all drivers work properly. You can go to the manufacturer’s websites and look for the latest drivers.
•Freeware drivers: So, these are the free drivers. Although you can find some updates, they are dropped from time to time. You can always go to the main website of the manufacturer to look for the latest updates.
Making your own driver updates can be tedious and time-consuming. You have to find the right place to download them and install them.