It’s not always easy to manage one’s computer. Now, to be sure, things have gotten much easier than in previous years. It’s probably easier to work with computers right now than it’s ever been. But easier and easy aren’t always the same things. And sometimes the solutions to big problems can bring about their own headaches. Nowhere is this more clear than in the world of device drivers.
Device drivers are usually a pretty amazing thing. They’re small pieces of code which act like a virtual bridge between disparate devices. One should take a moment to really think about how complex the various devices people plug into their computers have become. A printer might not seem very complex at first glance. But the true complexity becomes more clear when a person stops to really think about what modern printers are capable of.
For example, most newer printers have tiny displays which one can use to configure functions. This means that there’s a full microcomputer running inside the printer. Obviously it’s not at a level of one’s desktop. But keep the fact that there’s a second computer in mind for later. Next consider the fact that one can connect to a printer over wifi. This means that not only is there a little computer in the printer, it also has networking. This usually means the microcomputer needs to run a full networking stack on top of the GUI itself. And then there’s everything needed to actually function as a printer. It’s clear that this is more a co-processor than something as minor as a mouse.
Imagine just how hard it’d be for one’s own body to function with the addition of a second smaller brain. And even the most advanced computers pale in comparison to the adaptive power of the human body. So how do computers manage the task of interfacing with multiple advanced devices like this? This can be explained a bit more by scaling up to another advanced device. The Dell d6000 also delivers advanced co-processing abilities. It expands what a computer is capable of. But it also requires a lot of help. And this help comes for it, along with printers and other advanced devices, as drivers.
But just installing Dell d6000 drivers would limit the effectiveness of the update. Instead of only installing dell d6000 drivers one could install them along with a full driver pack. This will cover the dock, printers and almost anything else from Dell all at the same time.
To do so one would download the appropriate cab file. Next, one should go to the directory this cab file is now located within. One can type cmd in the address bar to bring up a command line at the current folder location. Next, one has to type in a single line to begin the process. It’s a very complex looking bit of information. In fact, it’s something known as a script. This is a very basic line of what’s essentially computer code. One should type, or copy and paste, this line into the command prompt – for /f “tokens=*” %a in (‘dir *.inf /b /s’) do (pnputil –i -a “%a\..\*.inf”) and press enter.
One should note that the line begins with the word ‘for’. This is the beginning of a loop. The command will look for every driver and install it. And one will see text notifying one of every new driver that’s installed. Basically, the line is telling the computer that for every driver it needs to run some installation commands.
Once this process is finished one should have all the Dell drivers contained within the cab file. The only other part of the process is to reboot the computer. After this a Dell dock, printer or any other supported device should function as intended.