Windows Server 2012 : Managing and Troubleshooting Hardware (part 2) - Understanding device installation

Installing devices

Every hardware component installed on a system has an associated device driver. Drivers are used to handle the low-level communications tasks between the operating system and hardware components. When you install a hardware component through the operating system, you tell the operating system about the device driver it uses. From then on, the device driver loads automatically and runs as part of the operating system.

Understanding device installation

Unlike early versions of Windows, Windows Server 2012 is very good at detecting devices that were not installed after upgrading or installing the operating system. If a device wasn’t installed because Windows Server didn’t include the driver, the built-in hardware diagnostics will, in many cases, detect the hardware and then use the automatic update framework to retrieve the required driver the next time Windows Update runs, provided that Windows Update is enabled and you’ve allowed driver updating as well as operating system updating. Windows can also check for device software and device info. Device software, if available from the device manufacturers, typically includes a custom app for working with the device and a device driver. Device info provides additional information about the device and can include the product name, model number, and manufacturer name.

After upgrading or installing the operating system, you should check for driver updates and apply them as appropriate before trying other techniques to install device drivers. Device Installation Settings control whether Windows Server checks for drivers automatically. The settings also control whether Windows Server checks for driver updates, device software, and device info. To access these settings, open the System Properties dialog box, tap or click the Hardware tab, and then tap or click Device Installation Settings. You now have several options:

• Yes, Do This Automatically (Recommended) When selected, Windows Server checks for and downloads drivers for new devices and driver updates automatically as part of the Windows Update process. Windows Server also checks for and downloads device software and device info.

• Always Install The Best Driver Software From Windows Update When selected, Windows Server checks for and downloads drivers for new devices and driver updates automatically as part of the Windows Update process. You control whether you want to check for and download device software and device info by either selecting or clearing the Automatically Get The Device App And Info check box.

• Never Install Driver Software From Windows Update When selected, Windows Server does not check for or download drivers for new devices or driver updates automatically as part of the Windows Update process. You control whether you want to check for and download device software and device info by either selecting or clearing the Automatically Get The Device App And Info check box.

Typically, device driver updates are seen as optional updates. The exceptions are for essential drivers, such as those for video, network adapters, and hard disk controllers.

When looking for driver updates, you’ll want to view all available updates on a computer, rather than only the important updates, to determine whether device driver updates are available. To install available driver updates, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel\System And Security, tap or click Windows Update. In Windows Update, tap or click View Available Updates. If the computer has installed the updates it last downloaded, the View Available Updates option isn’t available. In this case, you can tap or click Check For Updates to see if there are new updates for the computer and then view the available updates (if any).

   Controlling how Windows Update works with devices

   Although driver updates can be downloaded automatically through Windows Update, they are not installed automatically. The only drivers that are installed automatically are those required for new hardware and newly connected devices. Here, Windows Server checks the driver cache for drivers when you connect the device. If the driver is available in the cache, Windows Server installs the device.

   In Group Policy, the Specify Search Order For Device Driver Source Locations policy can override this default behavior. This policy is found under Computer Configuration\Administrative templates\System\Device Installation. If you set this policy to Always Search Windows Update, the operating system will search Windows Update for drivers rather than the driver cache doing so by default and this search occurs only once. If the computer isn’t connected to the Internet, the search will occur the next time the computer is connected to the Internet. The policy also can be set to search Windows Update only if needed or to never search Windows Update.

   In Group Policy, the Turn Off Access To All Windows Update Features policy controls whether Windows Update can be used. This policy is under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication Settings. If you enable this policy, all Windows Update features are blocked and not available to users. Users will also be unable to access the Windows Update website. In early releases of the Windows operating system, other policies could be used to control driver search locations and driver search prompts. However, these policies do not apply to current Windows operating systems.

2. When Windows finishes checking for updates, you might find that there are important updates as well as optional updates available. If the computer is set to automatically install updates, important updates will be installed as part of automatic maintenance. You can install important updates immediately by clicking the related link and then clicking Install.

3. Most driver updates are listed as optional updates, and optional updates are not installed automatically. If optional updates are available, tap or click the related link and review the available optional updates. Select the check boxes for the optional updates that you want to install and then tap or click Install.

The relative priority of your servers as well as your organization’s IT policies will determine whether you install driver updates as they become available—for example:

• On mission-critical production servers, you might not want to install drivers without extensive testing beforehand. If you don’t need driver apps to configure a device, you probably don’t want to download or install driver apps.

• On noncritical servers, you might want to install updated drivers as they become available. Again, if you don’t need driver apps to configure a device, you probably don’t want to download or install driver apps. If you install driver apps, you might want to analyze their resource usage to ensure that the apps work as expected and do not degrade overall system performance.

After you’ve installed the device driver, Windows Server 2012 should both detect the hardware and install the device automatically. If Windows Server detects the device but isn’t able to install the device automatically, the installation silently fails and you might find a related solution in Action Center. You will then be able to view the problem response and attempt to solve the problem.

Solving problems with Windows Update

By default, computers check for and download updates from the Windows Update website. If you configure Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on the network, computers can use WSUS to obtain updates. When using WSUS, don’t forget that you also need to enable and configure the Specify Intranet Microsoft Update Service Location policy in a Group Policy Object (GPO) that will be processed by the client computer. This policy is found under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update.

After you enable and configure the Specify Intranet Microsoft Update Service Location policy, you can use the Specify The Search Server For Device Driver Updates policy to specify the search server used for driver installation and updates. This policy is found under Computer Configuration\Administrative templates\System\Device Installation. If you enable this policy, you can specify whether the operating system searches Windows Update, a managed server, or a managed server and then Windows Update.

Keep in mind that if connection issues or the Windows Firewall are causing update problems, you need to resolve the problem before you can obtain updates for the computer. Note also that some updates might require accepting license terms before they install and that you might also need to restart a computer to complete the installation of some updates. With driver updates for video, network adapters, and hard disk controllers, you might find that a driver update causes unexpected behavior or instability.