Lesson 3: Installing, Updating, and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Device Drivers

41

Figure 1-21

The device’s Properties dialog box

6. Click Yes to the Warning. The driver is now rolled back.

7. Click Close to close the device properties. In some cases, you will need to reboot the

computer for the change to take effect.

If a recently installed driver is stopping Windows Vista from finishing the boot process and

you are therefore unable to roll the driver back, you can use the Last Known Good Config-

uration boot option. The Last Known Good Configuration option is present as a boot option

in the event that Windows Vista was unable to complete the startup process the last time

that process was attempted. The Last Known Good Configuration is written after the logon

process is completed. If the computer allows you to log on, the previous Last Known Good

Configuration is overwritten to include the problematic driver software.

Real World

Orin Thomas

Being a regular gamer, I frequently check the website of the manufacturer of my gaming

computer’s graphics card to see if an updated device driver has been released. When an

updated driver is released, I immediately download and install it, hoping to squeeze a

few more frames per second out of my favorite graphically intensive games. Sometimes

an updated driver means that I can turn on a few more details in the game’s 3D engine,

making my experience just a little more immersive. In general, my impatience has been

rewarded. Once or twice, the manufacturer has not ironed out all the bugs in the driver,

and I have to use the driver rollback feature to return to the previous version until the

issue is resolved.