Why Computer Hardware and Device Driver Detection Software Matters

Computer users are often times bombarded with a lot of information about their system especially when there are concerns pertaining to support queries either over the phone or online through forums and even offline with technicians.

It will be very inconvenient if we’re not familiar with the hardware classes on our PC and the drivers associated with it.

How do we know if a particular hardware on our PC needs backing up? How about determining which component requires drivers like non-plug and play web cams, DVD Writer Hardrives, external devices like mp3s among others?

If you haven’t realized how useful software for these purpose can be, then you better read this post. Device driver and hardware detection software matters because they serve as your saving grace when you accidentally lost your device driver CDs or installers for webcams, MP3s or other external devices that needs these applications in order for you to complete certain tasks on your PC along side the use of these gadgets.

Driver Magician Lite was able to prove to me how software of this kind works like magic. I received a web cam months ago that doesn’t come with a driver or installer within the package in order to work. I tried plugging in the new web cam alongside my existing one which comes with a driver.

I run the software and it was able to detect all the hardware components within the system as well as the corresponding drivers needed to run each component.

Based on the image below, for USB Video Device (the web cam) it says when you click on the description right below the menu read:

“Driver files of this device are contained in Microsoft Windows and are automatically installed by it when detected, so it is NOT necessary to back them up”

which only means that such device is plug and play. No driver is needed to be installed in order for it to work.

On the other hand, taking a look at USB PC Camera VC305 which was my existing install with a required driver, if you click on it, it reads below the menu,

“Driver files of this device are not contained in Microsoft Windows, so it is necessary to back them up”

which means these device needs a driver to be installed in order to work.

What’s useful about this software is that you can back up these device drivers either on a different folder on your PC or in a removable directory e.g. a thumb drive or an external hard drive.

So the next time that you run into connecting hardware on your computer, simply run the software and it will show you in case you’re not sure if the device you connected requires a driver or is readily usable.

Driver Magician Lite is freeware (about 1.63MB in size) but can be enough if all you wanted was a backup copy of your drivers and some information about your system however, you can upgrade to a paid version for $29.95US with a file size of 3.76MB with more added features.

You may wish to try the free version via this link.

Do you have a story to tell or any similar type of software that does the trick that you’d like to share? Please do so at the comments section.

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