| Everything You Need to Know About Mouse Drivers, Keyboard Drivers and Monitor Drivers |
 |
Computers are made up of hardware components, an operating system, and software. In order for the operating system to understand the hardware components that make up the computer, it needs information about each piece of connected hardware. It gets this information from device drivers. Each category of hardware comes with device drivers including input and display devices.
Input devices are devices such as keyboards, touchpads, and computer mouses. These are used to input data into the computer. Display devices are devices that are also sometimes called output devices. They output, or display, the information. For example, your computer screen is a display device. Sound cards and speakers are another type of output device as they output sounds.
You can simply plug in a new mouse, keyboard, or monitor and expect your computer to understand your intentions. Granted, sometimes you can if the device is a Plug and Play device. You must also install device drivers so that your computer understands what’s installed and how to work with it. In the case of Plug and Play devices, you don’t have to do this because Windows recognizes the device and installs the required device drivers on your behalf.
What’s involved with working with mouse, keyboard, and monitor device drivers? It’s not terribly difficult to add these devices and their drivers to your computer, especially because each of these devices plugs into a port on your computer. You don’t have to physically install anything.
First, plug in the device. For example, if you are installing a USB mouse, plug it into a free USB port. See if Windows automatically detects it or not. If it’s a Plug and Play mouse, Windows should detect it and install the appropriate device drivers. If not, you will need to use your installation disc and follow the installation routine. The setup disc should prompt you through the entire installation. Once complete, you will need to reboot the computer. The same is true for installing keyboards and monitors.
While it’s simple to install these devices, occasionally, their drivers need to be updated. This could be due to a conflict with newly installed hardware or the device drivers could simply be out of date. A new update from the manufacturer could add new features to your device or repair known issues. So, how do you do this?
To update your mouse, keyboard, or display device drivers, go into Device Manager by first visiting the Control Panel and clicking Device Manager (or System then Device Manager). You’ll see a list of all installed devices. The mouse devices are found under “Mice and Pointing Devices;” keyboard devices are found under “Keyboards;” Monitors are found under “Monitors.” From there, the steps are identical.
Find your device, double-click it, and click on the Driver tab. Choose Update Driver and then pick the search for updated device drivers option. Your computer will now search for updated drivers for your mouse, keyboard, or monitor. When found, it will automatically update the driver. If you don’t like the results, go back into Device Manager, find the device, click the Driver tab, and select Roll Back. This will restore the original driver you just updated.
Top pick for the best Driver Update Software:
 |
 |
