What are Driver Files?

Driver Files are pieces of code that help your computer interact with different hardware

devices and peripherals attached (internally or externally) to your computer.

Driver files are essential to the proper working of all the devices connected to your computer

and without them, the devices can't work.

Every device and peripheral has its own driver files, which tell the PC

exactly how to communicate with the device and make use of it.

While modern operating systems (like Windows) come pre-installed with drivers files for

common devices, there are still many devices that require you to install the driver files yourself.

Popular Driver File Extensions

INF — Format: Text
The INF file, or the Setup Information File, is an essential part of the Microsoft's Windows
operating system. Stored the form of plain text, it is used is to install softwares and drivers
for hardware components. In terms of structure, it is very close to an INI file format, which
is an informal standard for configuration files that was used in older versions of Windows.
DRV — Format: Binary
Another driver file extension, a DRV file that stores the information such as commands and
parameters, required by Microsoft's Windows operating system to communicate with external
as well as internal hardware devices.
SYS — Format: Text & Binary
While commonly used to store device drivers and hardware configurations by Windows, .SYS
files mostly contain real mode drivers — drivers that exist at DOS level (during the Windows
bootup process).
IME — Format: Binary
These are files that direct Microsoft's Windows operating system on how to convert keystroke
combinations into characters. They are commonly used for languages that require more than
one keystroke for a single character (eg. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.)