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TechKnowSurge Catalog Interactives Keep the Default or Install the Maker's Driver?
InteractiveComputeFree

Keep the Default or Install the Maker's Driver?

Keep the default driver, or install the manufacturer's? Decide for each device. Land five in a row.

⚑ Complete this interactive to capture a CTF flag worth 5 points.

About this interactive

A driver is a separate set of instructions that tells the operating system how to work with one device. There are far too many makers and models to build every driver into the operating system, so it carries default drivers instead: enough to get a device going the moment the computer starts, so you have a screen, a keyboard and a mouse before you have installed anything. Often that is all a device needs. A flash drive, a plain keyboard, a monitor showing a sharp picture: if a device does everything you need, the default driver is doing its job, and there is nothing for another driver to add. A default driver only covers the basics, though. When the screen is stuck at a low resolution, when Device Manager calls the graphics card Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, when a device's own extra features do nothing, or when the maker releases a driver with a new feature or a fix, install the manufacturer's driver. The lesson shows the ways in: in Device Manager, Update driver and then Search automatically, or Browse my computer for a driver you downloaded; double-click the maker's installer; or let a PC maker's tool, like Dell's, find the updates for you. The Driver tab in a device's Properties shows who provided the driver it is using and when. The question for every card: is the device missing something it should be able to do?

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+
2.2 Given a scenario, set up and install common peripheral devices to a laptop/PC.
3.2 Compare and contrast components of an operating system.

Key terms

Default Driver
A basic driver installed automatically by the operating system to enable initial communication with a hardware component before a full or updated driver is installed.
Device Driver
A separate set of software instructions that tells the operating system how to interact with a specific hardware component.
Device Manager
A Windows administrative utility that lists all hardware components recognized by the operating system and allows users to view device status, update drivers, disable hardware, or troubleshoot conflicts.
Graphics Processing Unit
GPU
A specialized processor designed to accelerate rendering of images, video, and graphics by performing many parallel calculations simultaneously. GPUs are also widely used for machine learning and general-purpose parallel computing workloads.

Topics

Device Driver Default Driver Device Manager Interactive Streak Sort

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