Is an applet a proper solution for hardware detection and driver install?
Applet should be better if your application is not depended on IE.
If for IE only then use COM/ActiveX
Can I use applets to inform me which hardware is installed on client system (fingerprint reader)? And if it is installed, can it tell me its version, so that it can download the proper plugin from a site? So that after everything is OK, the user can use his fingerprint reader to authenticate himself?