Computer users must be wary of their machines encountering driver-related problems time and again. It is essential for users to be acquainted with how a driver works and the factors involved on how to properly install, update, or even remove them if necessary to correct these problems.

Device drivers serve as recipients of related application requests and relay it to the corresponding device using its native language since applications require the functions provided by the hardware devices installed on the same machine.

User's should know about the 2 device driver types distributed today. These are:

1. Automatic Executable Drivers - these device driver types only need to be executed to automatically install its components in a computer system. These are often found to be in EXE format.
2. Manual Driver Installations - these driver types require in-depth knowledge of MS Windows or other platforms before they can be installed in a computer system. The user needs to utilize MS Windows Device Manager and Device properties or related applications bundled with other platforms to associate each component to the device.

Properly installing device drivers is easy in Windows XP. When an unknown device is installed, the platform will generate the "Add Hardware Wizard" to allow users to automatically install the hardware device. However, there are times when certain drivers need to be unpacked before they can be manually installed using the MS Windows Device Manager.

To manually install a driver, the user needs to open Device Manager and click on the device to associate a particular driver to the corresponding device. Hardware devices requiring drivers are usually marked with a yellow question mark or an exclamation icon. Here are the proper steps to get this right on the first try:

1. Right-click on the chosen device and choose "Properties". This will open the Device Properties window.
2. Click the "Update Driver" icon and follow the steps provided by the installation wizard. You can let the wizard find the right driver for it or manually choose the location where the corresponding device driver is stored.

Users can also follow the steps above to re-install or to update a new version of the driver for a specific device.

Removing a device driver is also done in the Device Properties window. There are 2 options available to achieve this. These are:

1. Roll Back Driver - this option allows the user to uninstall the current driver and revert to the previous drivers used with the device. This is often used when an update of the driver is causing the machine to encounter driver-related problems.
2. Uninstall - this option automatically removes the driver from the system.

The Update Driver, Roll Back Driver, and Uninstall options are found under the Driver tab of the Device Properties window. Microsoft has some useful resources for troubleshooting device driver problems too.