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Chapter 1

Installing Windows Vista Client

something involving the device. For example, if an application crashes every time you try

to use one scanner but works fine when you use another, you would suspect that the

driver for the first scanner might be faulty.

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After a long period of stability, the installation of a new driver causes the computer to

become unstable If a computer has been stable for a long time prior to the installation

of a new driver and errors and crashes start to occur, it is likely that the new driver is

causing the problem.

When you have determined that a hardware device driver is causing the problem, you have

three options. The first is to update to a newer version of the same driver. Updating drivers was

covered earlier in this lesson. The second option is to roll back the driver to a previous version,

one that you know works and does not cause errors. The third option is to completely unin-

stall the hardware device driver. The second and third options are discussed in the remainder

of this lesson.

Rolling Back Drivers

Driver rollback allows you to return to using a previous version of a hardware driver, should

you find that the drivers you have installed are either not working or are causing errors or sys-

tem instability. Driver rollback was a feature introduced with Windows XP. Prior to Windows

XP, returning a computer to an earlier version of a driver was a nightmare. Often, it was simpler

to reinstall the entire operating system from scratch! You can roll back a driver by editing a

device’s properties in Device Manager. It is possible to use driver rollback only if a previous

version of the driver had been installed on the computer. If no previous version exists, the Roll

Back Driver button in the Driver tab of the device’s Properties dialog box is dimmed.

To roll back a device driver, perform the following steps:

1. In the Start menu, click Control Panel. If the Device Manager icon is not displayed, click

Classic View in the left side taskbar.

2. In Control Panel, double-click Device Manager. Click Continue to close the User

Account Control dialog box.

3. Locate the device for which you will roll back the driver.

4. Right-click the device, and select Properties.

5. In the device’s Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 1-21, on the Driver tab, click Roll

Back Driver.