What Is a ‘Driver’
In this article, I’m going to explain a computer term that, like so many computer terms, isn’t very well understood by most people. And in many cases, isn’t understood at all. Maybe as a result you’ve done web searches for things like: “define drivers”, or something along those lines and looked in vain for plain language answers.
Of course, I’m not criticizing you — if you’ve always been baffled by this term, it’s simply because it was never explained to you in a way that actually made sense.
Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense by the end of this article.
I have a simple way to explain it that will just make sense for you. You can consider this article an entry in a basic computer dictionary, if you will.
To start with, just to make sure we all we’re all on the same page, I’m going to briefly explain the difference between “hardware” and “software”.
It’s really not hard to understand : “hardware” refers to all of the physical pieces of equipment, such as your mouse, your display, the hard drive, and so on.
“Software” refers to all of the pieces of the computer that you really can’t observe or handle directly. Software would include things like Microsoft Excel, your email program, Windows or the Mac OS, plus all of your personal files like specific emails, pictures, songs, and so on.
Here’s another way to think about it: hardware is like your brain, a physical part of your body, while software is like your mind or your thoughts — the non-physical part of yourself.
Software runs on hardware, just like your thoughts “run on” your brain.
Understand? OK, let’s talk more specifically about drivers.
Here’s the easy way to grasp what a driver is. Pretend every piece of hardware, including your printer, your mouse, etc., talks a different language.
So one speaks Spanish, another one speaks Italian, a different one Arabic, etc.
So when you plug in a new printer and power it on, your computer says hello and the printer comes back in a foreign tongue the computer doesn’t understand.
So it needs an interpreter.
And when I say interpreter, I mean just like in the real world, like if a foreign diplomat visits the country but doesn’t speak the local language. They need an interpreter to help them talk with the locals.
That, basically speaking, is what a driver is — an interpreter that helps your computer talk to a specific piece of equipment. And (most of the time) you need a different interpreter for all of the equipment that you hook up to the computer.
Get it?
Now occasionally, the driver may be “preinstalled” on your computer (in other words, the computer already has the interpreter ready and waiting in case it’s needed) and other times, it needs to either be installed from a CD, or downloaded off the Internet, and then put into the computer.
But no matter what, the computer needs that driver before it can talk to the printer or whatever other thing you may have connected to your computer.
And, simply speaking, that’s what a driver is.
