| The universal serial bus (USB) is the "old new | | | | especially true when they install small USB flash |
| wave" of plug and play capabilities of Windows | | | | devices or devices from third party |
| and other operating systems. Now, installing new | | | | manufacturers that are none too familiar on the |
| pieces of hardware is extremely easy, all you | | | | market. |
| need to do most of the time is to plug in the | | | | One of the common problems of this is that |
| device through the USB port and wait until | | | | there could be a problem with the driver itself, |
| Windows detects it. If you are using Windows XP | | | | which means that Windows or another operating |
| or Vista, you will realise that Microsoft has made | | | | system has trouble checking the binary files and is |
| things even simpler by having a database of | | | | confused as to how to register the product. It will |
| drivers for common products from a long list of | | | | try a system of matching and elimination as it |
| manufacturers. So really, the whole process of | | | | tries to register your new USB hardware. Another |
| installing something can take as little time as you | | | | reason could be that the driver itself is corrupt, |
| plugging it in, Windows detecting it, finding the | | | | which means any and all system communication |
| driver and installing it for you. | | | | cannot be processed and thus your product |
| Most of the time, there is no need for a restart, | | | | cannot be recognised by Windows. |
| because the USB is based on the 'plug and play' | | | | You need to check for either an alternative, more |
| interface, which means that usability of the | | | | updated driver, or see if there is a copy you can |
| product is literally instant. The range of products | | | | download from the internet. Usually it is readily |
| that now use the USB interface has now spread | | | | available in the tech support section of most |
| to across all manners of hardware and peripherals, | | | | manufacturers' websites and they will often either |
| like the mouse, keyboards, printers, scanners, | | | | post the driver or post a FAQ, where you should |
| DVD drives, external hard drives etc., just to | | | | be able to find which problem you are |
| name a few. The USB has also taken over the | | | | experiencing and either a tech or user |
| aged IDE female/male port that your ancient | | | | recommended solutions for it. |
| printer would have used for data transfer. | | | | USB driver devices are still an easy alternative to |
| With the USB, data transfer can be almost 4 to 5 | | | | complex data and installation for products and the |
| times faster than those old ports at the back of | | | | plug and play viability of it still remains number |
| your PC. One of the more common problems | | | | one. With USB 3.0 on the horizon, most issues |
| that people do encounter when they try to install | | | | should be resolved by then, and you will get a |
| a USB device is that the installation will sometimes | | | | much faster data transfer rate and maybe even |
| take too long, and they never know why. This is | | | | greater functionality in future. |