WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 These days, we're used to just plugging things into our computers and having them simply work 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:09.200 right away. And while it's true that you might need to install drivers for an odd couple of 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:14.880 things like a chipset or RGB, Windows does a remarkably good job of knowing exactly what's 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:19.440 connected to the PC and using appropriate drivers. But it wasn't always like this. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:24.000 Back before the days of plug-and-play hardware, you had to manually configure 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.560 how the system would assign resources to whichever gadget you were installing. 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:33.840 Every piece of hardware needs to be assigned addresses for memory and IO access so the system 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:39.440 knows where to send data. These days, it's almost always handled automatically by the operating 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:46.320 system. But back in the day, you had to find free addresses yourself and possibly even set switches 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:52.080 or do soldering on the actual hardware, not things that lend themselves well to novice users. 00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:57.120 Plug and Play came to save us with the release of Windows 95. You might remember how it would 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:04.160 try and automatically set up hardware when you first installed the OS. Although there were other 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:09.360 prior technologies that tried to enable automatic hardware setup, the Windows 95 launch marked the 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:14.640 first time consumers experienced widespread support for the technology. Of course, that didn't 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:20.240 necessarily mean that it worked well. Although Windows 95 could recognize some devices without a 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:26.320 hitch, there still wasn't a universal plug-and-play standard that all device manufacturers used. 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:32.240 And to complicate matters, the BIOS had to be on the same page as the device and the OS as well. 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:37.440 Furthermore, this was back when the internet was in its infancy and tons of users running 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:42.640 Windows 95 didn't even have an internet connection, meaning that while Windows came with some drivers 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:48.160 preloaded, it couldn't cover everything as the OS was unable to pull drivers off the server and 00:01:48.160 --> 00:01:52.560 oftentimes the system wouldn't know what to do with the new gadget. This led users to 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:57.840 derisively refer to the technology as plug-and-pray, as you never quite knew if the system would 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:03.040 automatically recognize the device or not when you first plugged it in. Indeed, Microsoft actually 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:08.240 had an infamous egg on their face moment during the Windows 98 demo that featured Bill Gates himself. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:12.640 They plugged in a scanner in an attempt to show how the new OS supported plug-and-play 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:15.280 and the system blue screened as soon as it was connected. 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:26.240 But as time went on, the industry figured out improvements to the technology. The ACPI 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:31.040 standard, which started becoming widespread in the early 2000s, gave Windows a more standardized 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:35.920 way to connect devices rather than relying on firmware support from the BIOS, which was more 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:40.960 inconsistent. ACPI allowed the motherboard to tell Windows automatically what hardware was connected, 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:45.680 which was a big step in the right direction. Manufacturers of other devices also started 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:50.000 baking in more information that the system could read to automatically tell what was plugged in. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.760 For example, PCI adapter cards, including ones that use the later PCI Express protocol, 00:02:55.760 --> 00:03:00.960 have a configuration space that contains information about what kind of device it is, 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:05.280 who made it, and what its capabilities are so that the system can react accordingly. 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:10.640 Similarly, USB devices have controller chips inside them that also contain identifying information 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:16.000 so that Windows can fetch the right drivers. And as we alluded to earlier, the ubiquity of high 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.120 speed internet connections has made it feasible for Windows itself to take these hardware identifiers 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:26.560 and match them with a large repository of up-to-date drivers that manufacturers send to Microsoft, 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:31.920 making it trivial for the OS to grab a needed driver in most cases. Although this is extremely 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:37.600 convenient, part of me does still miss the days when you had to insert a floppy disk with a driver 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:43.280 and listen to it make all sorts of ungodly noises. Oh yeah. That's the good stuff. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.040 So thanks for watching TechWiki. If you liked this video, give us a like, hit subscribe, 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.400 and be sure to hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for topics that we should 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:53.680 cover in the future.