Drivers and Operating Systems

A device driver is software that lets one particular device work with an operating system. Each device needs the correct driver for the operating system it is used with, so making sure a device has a suitable driver is part of peripheral management.

A driver is written to fit the way one operating system sends instructions to hardware. It is not a general file that any computer can use: the same piece of hardware needs a different driver for each operating system it is connected to, even though the hardware itself has not changed.

What the right and wrong driver do

When the driver is missing or unsuitable, the computer may not recognise the device at all, so nothing happens when you use it. Sometimes the device is recognised but only partly works: a games controller's buttons may respond while its vibration feature does nothing. The device is not necessarily broken; the software needed to use it properly is missing.

Worked example

A science department connects a digital microscope to a computer. The driver on the computer was written for a different operating system, so the computer cannot use the microscope. Its power light comes on, but no image appears on screen. On a computer running the matching operating system with the correct driver, the live image appears and the capture button saves a photo. The hardware is the same in both cases; only the driver is different.