How is application software different than a device driver?
Its helpful to think of software in layers. The part of the application software that you see is the highest layer. Device drivers are the lowest layer. Theres usually at least one other layer between these two levels, containing business logic that you only perceive by its results. Device drivers allow the layers above them to interact with the device without needing to know much about the device. They present a consistent interface that software can use to talk to different devices without having to deal with the low-level details such as registers, settings, etc. Application software is the stuff that you normally install on your computer to do various things such as play games, write emails, view web pages, etc. Device drivers may be manually or automatically installed. They allow your computer to work with monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, etc.