What is the Xinput driver?

A. With the Xbox 360, Microsoft is moving to a common peripheral approach in which the games controller for the Xbox 360 will work on Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later machines. This approach is known as the Microsoft Common Controller Driver model. To enable this functionality, you must install the Xinput driver, which you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0e989b12-576b-42f2-b7c1-2a17ce25188b&DisplayLang=en