What Is A Driver?

Date First Published: 30th August 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Are Drivers Required?
How Are Drivers Installed?

Learn about what a driver is in this article.

A driver, also known as a device driver, is a computer program without a user interface that enables the operating system and a hardware device to communicate with each other. They can be known as the translators that allow the operating system to ask the hardware devices inside the computer or the peripheral devices what to do. Almost all manufacturers provide free drivers and updates to their internal components and peripheral devices.

Drivers handle the requests made by the kernel in relation to a specific type of device. They also define messages and mechanisms the operating system of the computer and applications can access or make requests to the device.

Writing a device driver requires a very good understanding of how the hardware and the software work for a given operating system. Since drivers require low-level access to hardware functions in order to operate, drivers usually operate in a highly privileged environment and can cause system operational issues if something goes wrong. This is unlike most user-level software on modern operating systems that can be stopped without greatly affecting the rest of the system.

Are Drivers Required?

Drivers are required for any hardware device that is unknown by the operating system. If the hardware has features that are unknown to the operating system, it will not work properly without drivers.

It may be required for internal components, such as video cards, optical media drives, motherboard chipsets and peripheral devices, including printers, scanners, keyboards, speakers, and mouses. For example, a computer mouse usually works without drivers, but if it has special buttons not recognised by the operating system, those extra buttons will not work until the driver is installed. Some drivers also allow users to assign custom functions to peripheral devices.

However, most modern operating systems have built-in drivers that allow hardware to work at a basic level without needing to install drivers. Internal components, like the fan, CPU, and hard drive may not require drivers. The built-in drivers of the operating system may not be updated as often as those from a hardware manufacturer.

Drivers are only necessary for the hardware or peripheral device. Installing a driver for a hardware device that does not exist will not make a computer faster or give it any extra capabilities. If that is done, users will only get notifications about a device not detected or see problems with a non-existent device.

How Are Drivers Installed?

Drivers can be installed in two ways. The simplest way of installing a driver is for the operating system to automatically find and install the correct drivers when the device is connected. Drivers can also be installed from a CD or DVD provided with the hardware.

If no discs are available and the operating system does not automatically find and install the correct driver, users will need to download and install the driver from the manufacturer's website. It is recommended to install it from the manufacturer's website if possible, and not from third-party websites because it is difficult to know if the driver code has been modified if it is downloaded from a third party. Like other software, drivers could also be infected with viruses and malware.