Self-Installing Computer Peripherals

So, another day, . Basically the gist of it is that Plug & Play devices come with a bit of flash memory onboard, which contains the most recent drivers when the device shipped. Plug in the device, and the OS automatically finds and installs the drivers itself, without the need to use the install CD or download the drivers. What's more, if new drivers are found online, they are downloaded <i>to</i> the onboard flash memory, so that the device always carries the latest drivers in case you take it to another PC.

I think it's a great idea, and I've always felt that the drivers should come embedded in the device itself, because the whole "Windows comes with a heapload of drivers for all sorts of devices" thing fails as soon as you buy a device built <i>after</i> the OS was released.

Two things that worry me, though.. First of all, the patent mentions "additional software." This terrifies me, because I can't stand custom software for WiFi adapters or bizarrely translated custom printer dialogs. Usually when I download a driver, I try to grab <i>only</i> the driver from the install package, because I don't want the bundled software that does something that can already be done natively in Windows. If the device installs this software automatically, then that won't make me happy. It'll become an outright disaster if devices start shipping with a self-installing Google Toolbar.

Secondly, the whole success of this thing hinges on adoption by hardware manufacturers. Like the whole WEI thing. Which isn't getting picked up by anyone I've seen so far. Or take 64 bit drivers. I mean, <i>Microsoft </i>doesn't even ship 64 bit drivers for some devices. For some reason, hardware manufacturers seem to refuse to ever adopt good ideas. The success of this idea hinges for a large part on them, and past experience doesn't paint too rosy a picture, IMHO.

Your thoughts?