System and method for obtaining driver software and documentation for a detected hardware and software configuration

摘要

A system and method are described for automatically detecting devices or instruments connected to a host computer system and obtaining and installing driver software for the devices or instruments, including driver software for traditional instruments, e.g. an oscilloscope, connected to the host computer system via an external bus. The method may also include automatically detecting particular software applications installed on the host computer system and obtaining and installing driver software intended for use with the installed software applications. Also, a system and method for automatically detecting devices connected to a host computer system and/or detecting software applications installed on the host computer system and automatically obtaining documentation related to the connected devices and installed software applications. A first computer may provide information regarding detected hardware and/or software to a server computer. The server computer may then determine appropriate driver software and/or documentation to provide based on the received information.