Plug & Play

     We keep hearing about a thing called plug and play since Windows 95 was launched. What is plug and play? Does it really work? Find all about it right here.
        For the last three years we have seen the different versions of Windows- Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT claiming to support Plug and Play. Before we discuss whether it really works or not lets see what is Plug and Play and what difference it makes for us users.
        The previous versions of Dos and Windows did not have a feature by which a new device can be added that easily. Most devices need to have their own drivers. Drivers basically pass instructions from the device to the Operating Systems and vice versa. Writing drivers was a cumbersome task as it involved a lot of programming at a low level.
         In 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95 and announced it supported Plug and Play, the current topic of discussion. As the name itself suggests, its main advantage is that you "plug" your device into the computer and Windows will automatically "play" it. That implies that it will detect the device and if a driver is built for that device just pass it on or use what Windows by itself provides a compatible driver to have the new device detected.
         Device manufacturers and users warmly welcomed this feature. Microsoft came up with the Driver Development Kit specifically for these Industries to build and supply driver software for their devices. When you install a new device, in most cases Windows detects it by itself and guides you through the installation of the device. However, there are cases where the device fails to get detected automatically. Windows has a mechanism by which you can manually add the device in such cases.
          The problem really arises when Windows does not detect the device, the driver you have is incompatible with Windows or there is no default driver for that device. In such a case you are really left hanging nowhere, and if your device is not attached properly then there is a good chance your Windows will crash.
          Microsoft has released the Plug & Play version of Window NT too. NT is more stable, but its Plug and Play features are really not like the one in Windows 95. Microsoft has made up for that by bringing in a lot of other features that makes the Operating System more robust and enterprising.

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