Ghost driver

In phone based technical support call centers the term “Ghost Driver” gets used a lot. A Ghost Driver is a funky thing Windows does. In the device manager you will see one version of a certain driver; lets say for your NIC card. Assume the NIC card is not working and you think it is the driver. If you boot into safe mode you might multiple copies of your NIC driver. The drivers are called Ghost Driver. I don’t know why this happens. The usual fix is to remove all the NIC drivers. Then boot into normal mode and reinstalled the hardware. You will probably get a New Hardware Found Wizard upon booting the OS.

A ghost driver is also a term used in Germany. In Germany a ghost driver is someone who drives towards on coming traffic on the Autobahn. For no good reason at all a driver will enter an exit ramp and drive at oncoming traffic. These people are not mentally ill or drunk. It does not happen often but when it does the radio will announce “There is a Ghost driver on the Autobahn…”