One major drawback of Windows 2000 was its sometimes spotty device drive support. This was in part due to Microsoft's intent to support devices that were most likely to be found in business environments and ignore those common to home users. The driver database for Windows 9.x and Me was different from those of the Windows 2000 product family. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 consolidate the old and new device driver databases, ensuring greater hardware compatibility. For example, support for digital cameras and scanners has been significantly augmented. The Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) common system dialog boxes provide four dialog boxes as follows.
Scanner common dialog allows the user to preview, crop, scan, and input scan properties such as brightness and contrast.
Still camera common dialog allows the user to view thumbnail images, preview full-sized pictures, view picture information, and delete pictures.
Video camera common dialog supports the viewing of a live or recorded video stream. Captured frames can be retrieved as standard WIA pictures.
Device selection dialog allows the user to select from among multiple installed WIA devices and to set the device property information.
The Printer Wizard supports a significantly larger number of devices (more than 300) and permits shared printer setup.
In addition to the wider range of support device drivers, additional management capability has been added.
The installation of a new and untested device always represents a potential problem. Much of the "blue screen of death" system termination on Windows NT and Windows 2000 systems can be traced directly back to improperly behaving device drivers. The new Device Drive Rollback facility permits you to remove a bad driver and return to an earlier version when appropriate. In order to invoke this facility, right-click My Computer System Properties
Device Manager
click a Device Driver
Rollback Driver.
To ensure greater system integrity, a copy of the device driver that existed at the time of system booting is retained even when a new device driver is installed. In the event that the new driver causes system instability, the Last Known Good File can be substituted. This feature is used when the system cannot be rebooted in normal mode. To regain control, the user can boot the computer into safe mode and use the Last Known Good configuration to restore the driver.
NOTE
It is now possible to change the transfer rate of a device without having to restart the system, as was required with Windows 2000. Changes in the transfer rate are accomplished through the Device Manager. When changes are made, they are automatically reflected without system interruption.
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