When is an update to be considered a downgrade?

During the rather large number of windows updates yesterday, I noticed that my laptop had a drive update available for it’s wireless chipset – the “Atheros” update you might see if you have a similar wireless setup… so I decided that it might be a good idea to install that, as my driver was dated sometime in 2007 … I selected the update, and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t have to restart my computer – the wireless just disconnected and then re-connected to one of our two wireless routers… hmmm… connection speed is now 130k – down from the previous 300k?!?

After a couple of minutes trying to get the new “update” to work as fast as the old and “outdated” driver – I gave up…

My Computer…. right-click – select “Properties” – Hardware tab – Device Manager – located the wireless atheros device – right-click, properties – driver tab – clicked “Roll back driver”…

Bingo – the old driver was restored… it auto-disconnected and then reconnected to the WiFi router… and lo-and-behold – back to 300k connection – which is NOTICEABLY snappier…

A lesson learned…. because in this instance, I’ll take the “old but working like a charm” driver, over the “new and less than half the speed” one – any day!