Device Driver

A device driver is a small piece of software that lets the operating system communicate with a hardware device, such as a printer, graphics card, Wi-Fi adapter or keyboard. It translates general requests from the operating system, such as "print this page", into the specific commands that particular device understands.

Without the correct driver, a device may not work at all or may lose features and performance. Operating systems include drivers for common hardware, and manufacturers publish updated drivers to fix bugs and improve speed, especially for graphics cards.