jsbowden: (Wheelie)
jsbowden ([personal profile] jsbowden) wrote2007-10-31 08:15 am
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Holy Graphics Drivers, Fatman!

Windows Update just informed me that I had one Critical and one Optional updates available, and would I like to download and install them?

One update for Windows Defender, which seems to get updated about once every three days lately, and a new driver from Nvidia for the NVS 120M.

So I said "Sure, go get 'em!" Well, I moused around, selected all available updates, and let it do its thing.

It seems to have finished. The graphics driver is about the biggest reason for Windows instability. It hooks WAY deep in to the kernel, and buggy graphics drivers mean your box will crash regularly.

Vista has apparently backed off from the decision made from NT 3.51 to 4.0. I just updated a graphics driver on a running machine, and no reboot was required. I was shocked. I have verified via the Nvidia Control Panel and the Device Manager that yes, it is in fact using the latest driver, dated 4 Oct, 2007. I was using the driver released in July this morning when I got in.

This is kinda creepy. Windows isn't supposed to be this friendly.
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[identity profile] sungo.livejournal.com 2007-10-31 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I read an interview once where someone from MS said that, after a bit of a redesign in XP SP2, reboots aren't strictly necessary anymore. They fixed most drivers so they can be upgraded and installed with no need for rebooting. However, as the interviewee put it (paraphrased): "We're pretty sure the installation will work without rebooting. We're *really* sure it will work with rebooting so for now, we still force the reboot."

[identity profile] jsbowden.livejournal.com 2007-10-31 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, most things in Windows don't require a reboot...they do need a log in/log out cycle to read the registry entries they just added (and why the hell can't Windows refresh the registry on the fly? WHY?!), but graphics drivers hook in the kernel at a stupidly low level, which is why NT4 (NT 3.51 and earlier, the graphics drivers were in user space...this was great for stability, but slowed down rendering operations) was so damn fragile. Win2k and XP were better, but a flaky graphics driver could still screw you so badly you were in reinstall land as your only recourse. The only way this works is if MS have moved the drivers further out from the core, which is no longer a huge deal, considering how stupidly fast modern hardware is.
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