You may not realise it but you probably install quite a lot of devices on your computer, including printers, modems, memory sticks, digital cameras and document scanners, and all of these devices will need individual drivers so that they are compatible with your system.  Over time driver files can become out of date and corrupted and this can lead to problems not just using devices on your computer, but also system wide issues that can include serious Windows errors and even freezing and crashing.

It is important then if you do install and uninstall devices frequently on your system to invest in an online driver scanner, which is just a simple program that will scan your driver files and ensure that any obsolete, corrupted or duplicate files are removed.  These scanners can also update all of your driver files so that you have the latest versions of the drivers available and this can save you the bother of going to each individual manufacturer website to get the updates yourself.  Of course if you are still running old devices you may not need to update all of your drivers, so you will need to select a driver scanner that allows you to process manual updates so that you can pick and choose which drivers you actually want.

It is also important when using driver scanners downloaded from the Internet that you make sure you pick a legitimate program, as many of the cheaper and free scans can contain bugs and glitches due to poorly written codes that can reduce their effectiveness, and some could potentially contain malware that could infect your computer once you have downloaded them.  Always check that the website you are downloading software from online has a clear security policy and is free from malware, and you should look at online reviews to ensure that there has been a high level of customer satisfaction.