Drivers

Drivers

• 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.
• Without drivers, the computer would not be able to send and receive data correctly to hardware devices, such as a printer.

BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)

• It is, by definition, the most basic computer driver in existence and is designed to be the first program that boots when a PC turns on.
• The program is stored on memory built into the motherboard and is designed to boot the hardware connected to the PC, including the hard drives, video display output  keyboard and mouse.

Mother Board Drivers

• Motherboard drivers are small programs that are read by Operating system and allow for basic computer functions. 
• These drivers normally include programs that allow broadband ports, USB ports and I/O ports for the mouse and keyboard. 
• Depending on the make of the motherboard, the drivers may also have basic drivers for video and audio support.

Hardware Drivers

• Hardware drivers are programs that are designed to allow pieces of computer hardware, such as expansion slots, to function on a computer.
• Video cards, sound cards, network cards and other expansion cards come with driver discs to ease the installation process of the hardware. 
• Other devices, like certain kinds of digital cameras and MP3 players, have PC drivers programmed into their software for easy use on most makes of personal computers.

Virtual Device Drivers

• These are different than most drivers. Unlike the majority of drivers, which allow pieces of hardware to work with a particular operating system. 
• These emulate a piece of hardware and essentially trick the computer into thinking that it is reading from a piece of actual hardware. 
• A particularly popular use for virtual device drivers is with reading .iso files without having an actual disc, using one of these drivers to emulate a CD or DVD drive.