Historically, the Windows operating system has encountered issues, at some point in time, with hardware driver files.  Whether the case is that driver files required updates, were not loaded correctly, or outright missing, the later NTFS iterations of Windows (2000, XP, Vista) tried to improve on the method of locating device driver issues, and correcting them.

With Windows 7, device drivers continue to play a heavy role with hardware use, and the method of alleviating issues is, thankfully, not too complicated.

Device drivers is a matter than when moving from Windows Vista type menus to Windows 7, is it fairly similar.  However, if you are in the category that chose to pass over Vista, and held to Windows XP, there is some difference with navigating through this process.  For most, the only challenge will be the graphical menu structure.

To work with hardware devices and drivers, within Windows 7, click on the Windows logo Start button, and navigate to Device and Printers.  With this selection, you skip past going only into the Control Panel, and are taken to the Hardware and Sound submenu:  Device and Printers.  Here you will see a variety of icons representing various devices attached to your computer, to include Printers.

 

You may make note of the warning triangle next of one of these devices.  This small icon is indicative of a problem with the particular device.  Double-clicking on the device icon will bring up a Properties box screen.

Ignoring the fact that Windows 7 is currently running in a virtual environment (Virtual Box), you will see the basic information for the device under the General tab of the Properties window.  However, we will need more information than this to troubleshoot the issue.  Click on the Hardware tab to dig further into the device.

On the Hardware tab screen, you will see a list of device functions.  Depending on the type of device, you may see quite a few in the list box.  However, what you want to focus on is any of the items tagged with a yellow warning triangle.  With each item you select, a summary will appear towards the bottom of this screen.  Here was can see that the Device status is showing a driver is not installed.  Click on the Properties button to proceed deeper.

Now that we are in the individual Device Properties screen, the first suggestion we will see, in the Device status box, is to click the Update Driver button.  For those moving from Windows XP, that button was available; though here it is inactive.  The Change Settings button will make the Update Driver button available, and we will get back to this momentarily.  For now, click on the Driver tab at the top of the Device Properties screen.

In the Driver tab, the only option we have at this point in time is the Driver Details button.  We can click on it to see a message about the driver itself, but not much beyond that.  Because we have not yet clicked on Change Settings from the previous screen, we do not have permission to access the other features of the Driver tab.

Assuming that we navigated back to the Device Properties window, clicked on Change Settings, and then returned to the Driver tab; we now can utilize the other buttons in this screen.  There is also the added availability of the Resources tab for exploring deeper into the driver functions and details.

We can Disable the device if the need arose and Windows encountered repetitive errors with the device in question.  Here you can also Uninstall the driver should a solution require us to do so.  This time around, we are going to try and use the Update Driver option.

Upon clicking on the Update Driver button, a window appears allowing you to either manually scour your computer for driver files, or allow Windows to automatically look through your computer, and the Internet, for the device software.

If you know the exact set of files needed to run a device in Windows 7, using the manual browse feature is reasonable.  However, since Windows 7 is relatively new, it may be more practical to let the automated search run.

Should you choose to let Windows 7 attempt to fix this matter for you, and the search comes up empty handed, then Windows will inform you accordingly.  If the appropriate driver was not available, you will want to check with the manufacturer for updated driver files and Windows 7 compatibility issues.  Again, Windows 7 is still fairly new, and running the automated method may be safer than trying to forcibly load a driver file.

With this in mind, when a device driver is successfully loaded, it is reflected within the device’s properties area.  The above screen capture is an example of correct drivers loaded for the LPT1 printer port.  It shows the publisher of the driver files, the driver date, the version, and the digital signer, if there is one.