Plug and Play

A type of device, such as a game controller or printer, that automatically works when you connect it to your computer. The computer configures the settings and installs the necessary drivers by itself.

Of or pertaining to the ability of certain operating systems to automatically (a) detect a new device that has been added to the system, (b) uniquely identify that device, and (c) install the appropriate drivers and system files for that device. Note 1: Identification is facilitated by means of predetermined identification numbers hard-coded into the device. When the operating system boots up, it polls all installed devices and checks the returned identification numbers against the list of previously installed devices. If an identification number is not on that list, the number is looked up in a master database (either locally or on-line) and the new device is identified. Note 2: Not all devices are plug-and-play compatible.