All devices need drivers to get identified by the operating system. If you have the latest OS, like Vista… you probably won’t come across any troubles with plug and play because it ships with a lot of drives which we need for our day to day use. New device roll out each day and since Vista isn’t future ready, those future devices will fail to identify themselves correctly.
Microsoft has come up with a plan, which will probably make all future devices compatible with older operating systems. As per the new patent filed by Microsoft, the plan is to embed a small flash memory component which will hold drivers for the operating system, instead of operating system holding the drivers for the device. Whenever such a device is plugged into the system, the operating system will automatically install the drivers and detect the device correctly.
The drivers in these devices are updateable, which means the operating system can update the drivers automatically, provided you have an internet connection.
Sounds great! Sometimes, devices are shipped with driver a disk. This disk often gets lost or damaged. This patent should eliminate that problem as well. I’m wonder why didn’t anyone think of this earlier? Not that of a rocket science in this age.
[Via: istartedsomething]
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