Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

Installing and Managing Hardware

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If Windows Vista doesn’t detect the device and you’ve connected it properly, you

may be working with an older non-Plug and Play device. You can complete the

installation of a non-Plug and Play device by completing the following steps:

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. In the Control Panel, click Classic View and then double-click Add Hardware.

3. In the Add Hardware Wizard, read the introductory message and then click Next.

4. If you choose “Search for and install the hardware automatically” and then click

Next, the wizard searches for and attempts to automatically detect the new hard-

ware. When the search is complete, any new devices found are displayed, and

you can select one.

5. If you choose “Install the hardware that I manually select from a list” and then click

Next, or if no new devices are found in the automatic search, you’ll need to select

the hardware type. Select the type of hardware, such as Imaging devices or Printers,

and then click Next. Scroll through the list of manufacturers to find the manufac-

turer of the device and then choose the appropriate device in the right pane.

6. Once you complete the selection and installation process, click Next. Confirm

that you want to install the hardware by clicking Next again.

7. Click Finish. Your computer’s new hardware should now be available.

Installing and Maintaining Device Drivers

Device drivers are the low-level workhorses of the operating system. They are respon-

sible for making the appropriate calls to the HAL. Any inappropriate calls made by

device drivers can cause system-wide problems that are difficult to trace back to the

device drivers themselves. This can occur because when a device driver makes bad

calls, these bad calls often cause other problems, such as service failures or improper

read/write operations, which in turn can lead to fatal stop errors or data corruption.

Because device drivers are so important to proper system operation, it is crucial to

periodically check for updates to your computer’s drivers and apply driver updates as

appropriate. While Windows Update provides a way to check for updates to drivers

included with the operating system, you can’t rely exclusively on Windows Update.

As discussed previously, you need to check the available updates periodically to see if

there are optional updates for drivers that you may want to install. For other driver

updates, you’ll need to check the support pages at the web site for your computer’s

manufacturer.

As driver updates become available, you’ll need to determine whether you want to

install the updates. If you’ve been having problems with a device or other system

problems, you probably will want to install the driver updates. Keep in mind that in

some cases, you may need to restart your computer to finalize the driver update. If you

experience problems after installing or updating a driver, you roll back the driver to its

previous version, as discussed in the next section, “Rolling Back Device Drivers.”

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Chapter 5: Customizing Your Computer’s Hardware Devices

You can install and update device drivers using Device Manager. Click Start and then

click Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click System and Maintenance and then

click Administrative Tools. In Administrative Tools, double-click Device Manager. In

Device Manager, right-click the device you want to manage and then select Update

Driver. This starts the Update Driver Software Wizard, as shown in Figure 5-21.

You can now search for the driver using one of the following techniques:

• Perform automatic search of Windows Update web site and your computer.

1. Click “Search automatically for updated driver software” to have Windows

Vista search your computer and the Internet for the latest driver for the

device.

2. If Windows Vista finds a more recent driver than the one currently installed,

it will install the driver. If Windows Vista does not find a more recent ver-

sion of the driver, it will keep the current driver.

3. Click Close.

• Perform search of your computer in locations you specify.

1. Click “Browse my computer for driver software” and then click the Browse

button if you want Windows Vista to search only your computer or if you

want to locate the device driver manually.

2. Use the Browse for Folder dialog box to select the start folder for the

search and then click OK. All subfolders of the selected folder are searched

automatically.

Figure 5-21. Updating the driver software