What is the driver?

The driver, in computer concept, call the special device by means of which, programs available on the computer, can get direct access to any device of your computer, to be exact, to its hardware.

The most necessary drivers, go straight with an operating system in a set and when loading an operating system of the computer, the driver without which, your operating system simply couldn't work independently is loaded at once. However it is necessary to pay attention also that usually, for printers, scanners, videocards, webcams, special drivers which the producer of all these devices has to provide are necessary.

Usually, as those drivers don't interact with various hardware devices, their task consists that they have to imitate them. For example, if to take the printer, its driver of all on all writes down data and brings out of the program in the special file which and will be printed out later! It is known that our operating system is capable to operate various virtual devices which in turn understand only a set of standard programs which are included in them. The problem of the driver consists in transferring to an operating system these teams so that the operating system understood them and could process!
The driver has functions. For a start it is loaded, as though takes place registration system in an operating system, further it simply makes unloading of all of that took, namely, these are files, devices and certainly memory. After that the driver opens and direct work with it begins. When the driver is started, there is a reading by an operating system of all commands of this driver, well and further, the operating system writes down all these teams and keeps them. After processing is finished, there is a driver closing! Everything, the driver is kept in an operating system and now the given device can freely contact to this operating system.

In the conclusion I want to give an example with the connected printer. If you connect the printer, without installing the driver developed by the producer of the printer, the computer will see it as the unknown device, and you won't be able to unpack or scan anything the image and to display it. But as soon as we install the program the driver for our printer on our computer, the system understands at once that it for the equipment and what functions possesses this printer.

If you connect any equipment to the computer and to it there is a disk with the driver, advise to establish it even if and without driver everything works. Certainly everything depends on that what functions carries out the connected equipment.