conflicting versions of drivers during installation setup

[wylbur37]

Suppose you were running a SETUP program to install an application
that's about
two years old. Suppose one of the components (such as a driver)
happens to have
the same name as one that currently exists on your computer.
So this is a situation where an existing (but newer) driver
is about to be replaced by an older driver of the same name.

Is the operating system smart enough to prevent the newer driver
from being clobbered by the incoming (but older) driver?

If the answer is yes, how does the system determine which driver is
"newer"?
Does it go by the timestamp of the file, or is there some coding
inside the component that identifies the version?

....

 

[smlunatick]

Suppose you were running a SETUP program to install an application
that's about
two years old. Suppose one of the components (such as a driver)
happens to have
the same name as one that currently exists on your computer.
So this is a situation where an existing (but newer) driver
is about to be replaced by an older driver of the same name.

Is the operating system smart enough to prevent the newer driver
from being clobbered by the incoming (but older) driver?

If the answer is yes, how does the system determine which driver is
"newer"?
Does it go by the timestamp of the file, or is there some coding
inside the component that identifies the version?

...

The OS is supposed to be aware that the driver is older but it also
requires that the installer be "smart" also. I have seen several
SETUP packages ignore the OS check routines and "brute" force the
older driver on top of the newer driver.