October 2004
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
7h 44m
English
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Hack #83. Install the Driver Before You Install the Hardware
How not to "outsmart" Plug and Play and the Windows Add New Hardware wizard.
As brilliant and helpful as the concept and implementation of Plug and Play [Hack #18] has been, it is possible to confound it. This hack is almost too simple, and all too easily overlooked: install the drivers provided with your devices before you connect the device to your computer.
Why? As you probably know, when you connect a new device to your PC, Windows starts its Add New Hardware wizard and usually prompts you to provide the location of the drivers for the device. When the wizard runs, you have three choices: locate the disk or download location for the driver and let the wizard continue to install the driver and enable the device; let the wizard try to find new the driver on its own and possibly fail; or cancel the installation.
If you locate the driver and it installs, all is well. If the wizard cannot find a driver, it disables the device, remembers that the device is unconfigured, and marks it as an Unknown Device in Windows Device Manager. This is a fairly common situation for many USB devices, especially among anxious users who expect Plug and Play to "know all" and connect their devices, without following instructions. Windows needs to have the driver information available so it can detect the device by name and associate it with the right driver.
If you don't have the driver immediately handy but know you'll find it eventually, ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.