ITPEC IP April 2022 Question 12
Which of the following is an appropriate description concerning a device driver that enables the use of peripheral devices with a PC?
Explanation
Separately installed drivers must be reinstalled after the OS is reinstalled — initialising the disk erases them along with the old OS.
A device driver is software that lets the OS control a specific peripheral such as a printer or scanner, and it is installed into the OS on the disk. Initialising the hard disk deletes everything on it, and a freshly installed OS contains only its own standard drivers, so any driver that was added separately, for example from the manufacturer, must be installed again.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — installing an application leaves the drivers already in the OS untouched; the application uses them through the OS
- •(c) — a driver that is no longer needed can be uninstalled like other software, by a user with administrator rights
- •(d) — drivers are specific to the manufacturer and model, because devices differ in commands and functions; one printer driver does not serve every printer
Key rule: A device driver belongs to the OS and matches one device model and OS; it goes when the OS is reinstalled, and it can be added or removed like other software.
Computer Component · AI-written, may contain errors
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