5 Ways Up-to-Date Drivers Can Help Improve the Health of Your PC

Device drivers are software programs that let Windows and other applications in your computer interact with the hardware devices that make up your computer or devices that are connected to your PC.

Just like computer programs have updates and service packs to fix bugs and add features, drivers do as well. Unfortunately, the Windows Update feature that comes with every Windows OS version does not update drivers. As a result, users are subject to all the reliability, performance and security issues associated with aging drivers. Driver management tools exist to make it easy for every PC user to keep up with all the updates that are released routinely. It is worthwhile to note that even new computers can have out-of-date drivers and OS.

Here are 5 ways that keeping your drivers up-to-date can help you improve the health of your PC:

1. Fewer Program Malfunctions
   

   Some programs are known to malfunction due to outdated drivers. For example, Windows MovieMaker or the Microsoft Producer program may unexpectedly quit while you are importing, previewing or publishing source content that uses the Cmaudio.ax Driver from C-Media, and you may receive the following error message: Moviemk.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.^[1]

2. Improve Your Gaming Experience
   Out-of-date drivers and operating systems can cause a wide variety of gaming issues, and are one of the first things to check when a game is having issues. Some games and programs might run fine on a system with old drivers, but outdated drivers can still create technical issues with specific games or programs. Having up-to date drivers in your system guarantees optimum performance of your sound, video and other hardware devices thus giving you that superior gaming experience.
3. Optimize your browsing experience

   Modern browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and some plugins use your graphics card to help speed up the display of web content. Graphic cards are also used by advanced web features like WebGL.^[2] To fix problems with these features or to take advantage of them, you may need to update your graphics card drivers.

   One could use Driver Management tools such as DriverAssist from Safebytes to install the latest graphics card drivers into your system helping you make the most of the advanced features currently available in many modern web browsers.

4. Resolve USB port issues
   If you have issues with your USB port, it is port related, driver related or device related. An out-of-date BIOS driver can create issues with your system recognizing the USB port. Updating your drivers can correct conflicts between particular hardware and drivers that may be causing USB problems.

5. Avoid Device Failures Due to: Out Of Date, Incorrect, Missing or Corrupt Drivers
   Only a driver that fits the OS version well can transmit commands to devices properly. To remove the guesswork out of the driver updating process, it is recommended that you use an intelligent software tool that is able to detect your computer’s exact configuration and is able to match with the right driver.