Q: What is a driver?

A: A device driver is a software program that manages communication between your computer and a hardware device. Devices like keyboards, mice, disk drives, and printers all use a software driver to interact with the operating system and other software applications.

When you buy an operating system like Microsoft Windows XP, many device drivers are built into the operating system. However, if you buy a new type of device that the operating system did not anticipate, you'll have to install a new device driver. A device driver essentially converts the more general input/output instructions of the operating system to messages that the device can understand.

Q: How to install driver?

A: Most driver files will come in a zip or rar format. The first thing you will need to do is extract the zip or rar file to a folder on your computer. Any new folder on the desktop, or on the C: drive will work just fine. If the downloaded file is an executable .exe file, it often will automatically extract itself to a folder on your computer, make note of that directory to use when you tell Windows where the new driver is located. Within that zip or rar file there will be a text document contain instructions on how to install it. Sometimes it is a file called SETUP that you merely need to click on to install. In some cases, you need to install the driver manually by doing the following:

1. Right click on "my computer"
2. Choose "properties"
3. Choose "device manager" (In Windows 2000, you have to choose the "hardware" tab first and then "device manager"). This will display a list of the devices that are on your computer.
4. Right click on the device and click "properties".
5. Choose "driver" and click "update driver"
6. You will be asked to browse for the new driver, locate the folder you placed it in choose the appropriate file.

If the driver is contained within a cab file, many compression-extraction programs (like WinZip) will be able to extract the files from the cab file as if it were a zip file.

Q: Do you need to reboot your PC after you install a driver?

A: In most cases, yes. Windows will automatically let you know if it needs to reboot before finalizing installation of the driver. Older versions of Windows are almost guaranteed to need a reboot. Modern versions of Windows will sometimes not need to, depending on the type of driver, and the hardware.

Q: When I try to install a driver, I get a warning message saying that the software has not passed Windows Logo testing, what does this mean?

A: Microsoft offers WHQL certification for drivers, effectively giving the driver a seal of approval. If a driver is not WHQL certified, you will see a warning message about it. Some hardware manufacturers choose not to have their drivers WHQL certified, or the drivers can be brand new, and not yet certified. It does not mean that the driver is bad, just that Microsoft has not officially certified it. It is typically completely safe to click the "Continue" button to install the driver.

Q: What systems does Driver Backuper work on?

A: Driver Backuper can works on Windows XP 32-Bit / Windows XP 64-Bit / Windows Vista 32-Bit / Windows Vista 64-Bit. Driver Backuper is not available for Macintosh, Unix or Linux.

Q: Does Driver Backuper install any other software onto my PC?

A: No! When you scan with Driver Backuper, no other software is installed onto your PC. Our Driver Backuper Scan Technology is 100% Guaranteed Adware Free, Spyware Free, and Virus Free.