What Is a Device Drive?

[Geekom Official]

A device driver is a small piece of software that tells the operating system and other software how to communicate with a piece of hardware.

For example, printer drivers tell the operating system, and by extension whatever program you have the thing you want to print open in, exactly how to print information on the page

Cards and Drivers​

Sound card drivers are necessary so your operating system knows exactly how to translate the 1s and 0s that comprise that MP3 file into audio signals that the sound card can output to your headphones or speakers.

The same general idea applies to video cards, keyboards, monitors, mice, disc drives, etc.

Keep reading for more on why drivers are important, including some more examples, as well as information on how to keep your drivers updated and what to do if they're not working properly.

How Do Device Drivers Work?​

Think of device drivers as translators between a program you're using and a device that the program wants to utilize somehow. The software and the hardware were created by different people or companies and speak two completely different languages, so a translator (the driver) allows them to communicate.

In other words, a software program can provide information to a driver to explain what it wants a piece of hardware to do, information the device driver understands and then can fulfill with the hardware.

Device Drivers and Compatibility​

Thanks to device drivers, most software programs don't need to know how to work directly with hardware, and a driver doesn't need to include a full application experience for users to interact with. Instead, the program and driver simply need to know how to interface with each other.

This is a pretty good deal for everyone involved, considering that there is a nearly endless supply of software and hardware out there. If everyone had to know how to communicate with everyone else, the process of making software and hardware would be near impossible.

#Important: When a driver update is available from a hardware manufacturer, it will be available for free from their website. You should never have to pay to update drivers unless you're paying for a driver updater program, but even then, the specific drivers themselves should not need to be purchased.

If you have any questions in your mind regarding What is Drivers or more on what are device drivers that were not addressed in this What is Drivers article, then do feel free to ask your question as a comment below and we will definitely help you out in resolving your query.