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You can control how Windows behaves when drivers are being installed. Click the Driver Signing button on the Hardware tab of the System Properties dialog box to display the Driver Signing Options dialog box shown in Figure 17-22. If you select Ignore, Windows will install an unsigned driver without warning you. If you select Warn, you will be prompted when Windows detects an unsigned driver during driver installation, and you will be given the opportunity to either stop or continue the installation. Choosing Block will prevent the installation of unsigned drivers.

The default Driver Signing setting is Warn. This also is the default setting during installation, so you will always be warned when Windows detects an unsigned driver during

Figure 17-22 Driver Signing Options dialog box

Windows installation. This is no problem for a standard installation, when you are sitting at the computer, responding to all prompts—but it is a problem for automated, unattended installations. This is a good reason to check out all your device drivers before installing Windows. In 64-bit versions of Windows, all drivers must be signed. No exceptions. Microsoft wants to keep tight controls on the drivers to improve stability.

Device Manager

You’ve worked with Device Manager in other chapters when installing and troubleshooting devices; it’s also the tool to use when optimizing device drivers. Right-click on a device in Device Manager to display the context menu. From here you can update or uninstall the driver, disable the device, scan for hardware changes, or display the Properties dialog box. When you open the Properties dialog box, you’ll see several tabs that vary according to the specific device. Most have General, Driver, Details, and Resources. The tab that matters most for optimization is the Driver tab.

The Driver tab has buttons labeled Driver Details, Update Driver, Roll Back Driver, and Uninstall. Driver Details lists the driver files and their locations on disk. Update Driver opens the Hardware Update Wizard—not very useful given that the installation programs for almost all drivers do this automatically. The Roll Back Driver option is a different story. It enables you to remove an updated driver, thus rolling back to the previous driver version. Roll Back Driver (Figure 17-23) is a lifesaver when you install a new driver and suddenly discover it’s worse than the driver it replaced! Uninstall removes the driver.

Figure 17-23 Rolling back to the previous driver

Adding a New Device

Windows should automatically detect any new device you install in your system. If Windows does not detect a newly connected device, use the Add Hardware Wizard or Add Hardware to get the device recognized and drivers installed (Figure 17-24). You’ll find it on the Hardware tab of the System Properties dialog box.

Figure 17-24 Add Hardware Wizard

Click Next on the Welcome screen, and the wizard searches for hardware that has been connected, but does not yet have a driver installed. If it detects the device, select it, and the wizard installs the driver. You may have to point to the source location for the driver files. If it does not detect the device, which is very likely, it will ask you if the hardware is connected. When you answer yes and click Next, it gives you a list of installed hardware, similar to Figure 17-25.

Figure 17-25 List of installed hardware

If the device is in the list, select it and click Next. If not, scroll to the bottom and select Add a new hardware device, and then click Next. If the device is a printer, network card, or modem, select Search for and install the hardware automatically and click Next. In that case, once the wizard detects the device and installs the driver, you’re finished. If you do see your device on the list, your best hope is to select Install the hardware that I manually select from a list. In the subsequent screens, select the appropriate device category, select the device manufacturer and the correct model, and respond to the prompts from the