what exactly is this driver stuff?

so my understanding is basicly a driver is the program that helps hardware
comunicate with the .. OS, processer, both .

or helps software talk to the hardware. (lets your soundcard play MP3s or something?)

and if you are installing drivers ... where do you put them?

if you can put them anywhere on your hard disk could i just make a folder called "drivers" and put every driver i ever download in there?

like i have this DVD drive in my computer, and ever sense i got the computer ($400 from a "buddy") it has never worked, i mean, i don't think it is broken, just missing ..... drivers... or something. someone told me i need drivers for it. i can get these by going to manufactures web site. so even if i find ... the diver(s) what do i do with it.

i am wanting to know this stuff beyond just getting my dvd to work, honestly i dont' really care about getting the dvd to work i have an xbox to watch dvds on if i feel the need.

i just wonder about drivers cause i .... i am the type of guy that wonders about drivers... so any not rude to my n00bness posts are very much thanked.

 

Yes, a driver is basically a bit of code that allows or helps the operating system (in the NT based systems like WinXP), and/or other software (in the Win9x systems) to access and use the various pieces of hardware.

The simplest drivers are nothing more than text data files that explain the hardware's parameters. Your monitor's driver is one such. Those will all be found in the Windows\inf folder, in any version of Windows, at least from Win95 on. Some hardware requires more extensive support, with specialized files, like .dll files, that generally get parked in Windows\System, or \System32 folders. Those must be there; Windows won't find them anywhere else, so no, you can't just put them where you'd like.

Many "drivers" are combination of raw drivers plus secondary software. Your video card driver installs drivers, plus secondary software for the tweaking utilities that show up as additional tabs in the Display Properties window. Same for your sound card & it's applications, like equilizers and tweakers such as effects control. The secondary software may not be needed for the device to function, but may be very necessary for it to function WELL, and to give you some control over it. Most driver install packages don't give you any options as to where the additional folders/files get installed, so you still don't have any choice, although there's nothing mandating a specific location for those.

 

thanks allot this post was very helpfull.

but it has raised some other questions
what is NT based system , or a win9x?

allso, don't u need drivers to run stuff on linux? not just windows?

 

As far as drivers are concerned, Win9x = Windows 95. 98, 98SE, & ME, and were all consumer operating systems that let software control hardware directly, which is one reason why a system crash usually crashed the whole system. NT is a much more tightly controlled business operating system, which originally didn't play games, in NT version 3 & 4, and didn't let the software access the hardware directly; that was all done through requests to Windows, which kept control of the hardware. Usually an application crash would crash the application, but usually not crash the whole system. Much more stable. Windows 2000 & XP are NT based, and while they've been expanded to allow games & other consumer goodies, they still keep full control of the hardware. Drivers for NT based systems are totally different than 9x drivers, and are not interchangeable between the 2 system types.

Linux is an entirely different operating system, and drivers must be written specifically for it as well.

And for most any hardware, if there is no driver written for your operating system, you can't use the hardware. Windows comes pre-loaded with a huge driver database, which is why most (not all) hardware will work with it right out of the box, but the Windows drivers generally aren't the latest and greatest for your hardware. Proper drivers are more of a challenge in Linux.