Device drivers are the software programs that are designed to establish communication between the hardware on your computer and the operating system on your computer. Your computer cannot perform the tasks that you ask of it without these items and you need to know that the programs must be specifically written for the exact operating system that you have. If you have Windows XP you need programs written for it because a program written for Windows 2000 or any other Windows operating system would nine times out of ten cause your computer to crash.