Cleaning Windows

To keep your clients' systems running as efficiently as possible, it is well worth your while to schedule a review of their PC driver statuses once or twice a year. Although Microsoft's Windows Update can investigate and report on known driver updates, its driver databases may considerably lag updates from equipment manufacturers and online driver-tracking services. That's why you'll need to refer to online driver-update sites. All you need is one or more Windows PCs, Internet access for each PC you wish to scan and Internet Explorer (Version 5.0 or later) on each PC you wish to update.

For this recipe, I turned to Drivers Headquarters (www.drivershq.com) to provide an analysis tool, ActiveX Driver Detective. ActiveX surveys all drivers currently installed on a PC, then compares them against a list of offerings currently available from manufacturers and other software developers. Joining the site costs a one-time $29.95 fee.

Regardless of the machine and software you're working on, the general steps and methods remain the same.

Step 1: Launch the machine's browser and visit Drivers Headquarters. If you choose not to join the site as a member, click the "Free Scan for Updates" link, or the Driver Detective button in the middle of the page. But you won't be able to download drivers unless you join the site.

Step 2: The computer will probably inform you that the page is seeking to install an ActiveX control named WebXscan; you must grant permission. You may also need to turn off or temporarily disable all pop-up blockers, because the survey report appears in a pop-up window.

Step 3: The scan results appear in a two-part Web page report. At the top of the page, you'll see the ratio of correct-to-outdated ("wrong") drivers installed. Further down, details about individual devices will appear, labeled "good" or "bad."

Step 4: If you haven't already created a System Restore point (Windows XP machines) or done a backup (other Windows systems), now's the time to do so.

Step 5: Return to the scan results Web page, select a device for which a new driver is available, then click its download link. This calls a pop-up page that displays details about the related driver, including the date and version for the driver installed on the scanned PC, and also for the latest driver available.

Next, click on the link to download the new driver. When the download dialog box opens, I find it helpful to set up a special folder on disk (in the Drivers folder) named DriverHQ-yymmdd, which makes the drivers easy to find and identify later. Finally, click on "Back to Results" at the bottom of the page. This will return you to the Scan Report page. Either continue this activity to download all marked drivers, or proceed directly to Step 6.

Step 6: Close all applications. Then open Windows Explorer. Next, navigate to the directory where you saved your most recent driver downloads. Double-click the driver file of choice to try it. When you've finished one driver install, reboot the system. Remember, be prepared to recover from system problems or failures if necessary. Repeat for each driver.

Step 7: Check your work. Fire up IE, return to the Drivers Headquarters home page and repeat the Driver Detective scan. For all the drivers you replaced, it should show a change in status from "bad" to "good."

In principle, that's all there is to it. In practice, the process takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour for each PC.

Words of Warning
Whenever you replace old drivers from manufacturers other than Microsoft, always be prepared to roll back any and all changes. New drivers usually improve system performance and make advanced features available to users. But they can also cause systems to become unstable or even crash. If and when that happens, you must be ready and able to restore the system to its previous setup.

Also, always install only one driver at a time, then check your results before proceeding to the next driver. That way, if you have a problem, you'll always be able to identify which driver caused it.

For versions of Windows other than XP, use ntbackup.exe to create a system backup before installing drivers. Be sure to capture system state data, as well as the contents of the boot and system drives; this will enable you to return to where you started, if necessary. Then try the drivers one at a time.

Ed Tittel ([email protected]) is a writer and trainer in Austin, Texas.