Hardware drivers are the software that allow your operating system to communicate with your hardware. Battlefield 2 full game. Windows includes built-in drivers and automatically downloads new ones to make setup easier, but device manufacturers also provide their own driver packages.
The default drivers Microsoft provides are stripped down and a bit older, but they’re written by your device manufacturer — not Microsoft themselves. They’re often good enough, but sometimes you’ll want the complete package or a driver Windows can’t provide.
Install OEM USB drivers If you are developing on Windows and want to connect a device for testing, then you need to install the appropriate USB driver. This page provides links to the web sites for several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), where you can download the appropriate USB driver for your device.
Drivers 101
Manufacturers write drivers for their hardware and provide them directly to you. If you buy a complete PC or laptop, it will come with the manufacturer’s drivers integrated. You may even get a driver CD containing drivers you can install on your computer. The latest versions of these drivers are also available or download from the manufacturer’s website. For example, if you have a laptop, all the drivers for your laptop’s hardware will be available on the manufacturer’s website — find the downloads page for your specific product model. If you build your own desktop PC, you’ll find hardware drivers for each component on each manufacturer’s website.
To ensure hardware works as well as possible, Microsoft doesn’t force you to install drivers from your manufacturer before hardware will work. Windows itself includes drivers, and new drivers can be automatically downloaded from Windows Update. Some components also have standard, “generic” drivers. For example, when you connect a USB drive to your PC, Windows uses standard USB mass storage device drivers. Manufacturers don’t have to create their own drivers for USB devices, mice, keyboards, computer monitors, and certain other types of peripherals.
How Microsoft Provides Drivers
Drivers are integrated into Windows itself, which is why the latest versions of Windows will provide the best out-of-the-box hardware support on newer hardware. For example, if you installed Windows 7 on your PC and a piece of hardware didn’t work immediately, you might have to download drivers for that hardware component from its manufacturer’s website and install them manually. If you installed Windows 8.1 on that same PC, everything might work out of the box because Windows 8.1 come with more modern drivers.
When you connect a device to your PC, Windows attempts to automatically configure it and install the appropriate driver. By default, Windows will check Windows Update for a driver is no drivers exist on the PC. Microsoft also distributes updated drivers via Windows Update, so you can get any necessary driver updates from there instead of hunting them down.
How Manufacturer-Provided Drivers Are Different
RELATED:When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers?
The driver packages Windows automatically installs are different from the ones your device manufacturers provide. The core drivers are created by your device manufacturer and provided by Microsoft after they go through Microsoft’s WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) testing to ensure they’re stable.
However, Microsoft provides these drivers in stripped-down form. For example, when you get drivers for NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards from Windows Update, you’re getting a driver package without the NVIDIA Control Panel or the AMD Catalyst control panel. Connect a printer and the automatically provided drives won’t include the printer’s control panel. Plug in a wireless mouse and it will work immediately, but you’ll need the manufacturer’s control panel if you want to view the mouse’s battery level or customize what the buttons do. However, you may not always want these hardware utilities.
The versions of the drivers Microsoft provides are also a bit older. Microsoft doesn’t update these drivers as frequently, so your device manufacturer may have newer versions on their website. However, using older drivers often isn’t a problem. We don’t recommend updating hardware drivers — this can introduce problems. The one exception is graphics drivers, where you do want the latest versions of your graphics drivers if you play PC games.
Our Recommendation
RELATED:How to Update Your Graphics Drivers for Maximum Gaming Performance
If you install Windows on your PC or insert a new hardware device and it works out of the box — great! If everything is working properly, you probably don’t need to install hardware drivers. Some device manufacturers may even recommend against installing their hardware driver packages on modern versions of Windows like Windows 8, as Windows already includes the necessary drivers.
However, there are some cases where you will want to get drivers from your manufacturer:
- If You Play PC Games: Install the latest graphics drivers directly from NVIDIA or AMD if you play PC games. Not only do these packages include tools that will help you configure your graphical settings; newer versions will also improve performance.
- When You Need a Hardware Utility: Install manufacturer-provided drier packages when you need some kind of included hardware utility. For example, you may want to know how much ink is left in your printer. If this isn’t displayed on the printer itself, you may need the printer manufacturer’s control panel to see this information.
- When You Need the Latest Version: You probably don’t need the latest version of a driver. In some rare cases, a bug may be fixed in the latest version and you’ll need to install it from your manufacturer’s website.
- If Hardware Doesn’t Work: Download hardware drivers from a device’s manufacturer if Windows can’t automatically detect and install the hardware. Windows isn’t perfect and can’t automatically configure every piece of hardware.
- If You Have an Issue: Install the driver package from your manufacturer if a hardware device seems to not be working properly. It may seem buggy or just slow.
This will probably be controversial advice. Many geeks swear by installing all the manufacturer-provided drivers after they install Windows on their PC — motherboard chipset, network, CPU, USB, graphics, and everything else. But we’re not using Windows XP anymore — modern versions of Windows have improved.
Installing your manufacturer’s drivers often won’t be necessary. Your computer won’t be faster just because you regularly update your hardware drivers, and it also won’t be slower just because you’re using drivers that are a few versions old. (Graphics drivers are the one big exception here.) Cirrus 4206bcnz driver training.
Image Credit: juliendorra on Flickr
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Want to update your computer’s hardware drivers? Get your driver updates from Windows Update or your device manufacturer’s website. Here’s how.
RELATED:Never Download a Driver-Updating Utility; They’re Worse Than Useless
Hardware drivers are the bits of software Windows uses to communicate with your PC’s hardware. Device manufacturers create these drivers, and you can obtain drivers straight from the manufacturer of your devices. Manufacturers also submit drivers to Microsoft for testing and signing, and you can get many drivers from Microsoft through Windows Update. Often, you won’t need to bother with updating drivers, but you may sometimes need to get the latest version—especially if something isn’t working right. While they are tempting, we recommend that you don’t use driver-update utilities.
Should You Update Your Drivers?
RELATED:When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers?
In general, we don’t recommend updating hardware drivers unless you have a reason to. The driver for the SD card reader that came built into your computer is probably just fine. Even if the manufacturer does offer a slightly newer version, you probably won’t notice the difference. There’s no reason to obsess about having the latest hardware drivers for every component in your computer.
There are some good reasons to update drivers, though. In particular, gamers generally should keep their graphics drivers as up-to-date as possible to ensure the best graphics performance and the fewest bugs with modern games. In other cases, you might need to get the latest version of a hardware driver if the current one is causing problems with your computer.
If you do want to update your drivers, skip the driver-updating utilities. We can’t repeat that enough. Go right to the source for your hardware drivers. This means downloading drivers from the hardware manufacturer’s individual websites, or letting Microsoft’s Windows Update do the work for you.
Update Your Hardware Drivers With Windows Update
RELATED:What You Need to Know About Windows Update on Windows 10
Assuming you’re using Windows 10, Windows Update automatically downloads and install the latest drivers for you. Windows 7 and 8 provide driver updates via Windows Update, too, but Microsoft is being much more aggressive about this in Windows 10. It all happens automatically. Even if you install your own hardware drivers, Windows sometimes automatically overwrite them when a new version is available. Windows is pretty good about not overwriting things like graphics drivers, though—especially if you’ve got a utility from the manufacturer that keeps up with updates.
Using Windows Update in Windows 10 is the automatic, set-it-and-forget-it solution. You don’t need a driver-updating utility because Windows has one built-in.
On Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, hardware drivers appear in the Windows Update interface as an optional update. If you want the latest hardware drivers, be sure to go open Windows Update, check for updates, and install any available hardware driver updates.
Update Your Graphics Drivers
RELATED:How to Update Your Graphics Drivers for Maximum Gaming Performance
For graphics drivers, you can use the control panel included with your graphics drivers to check for updates them. NVIDIA, AMD, and even Intel provide control panels that automatically check for and download the latest graphics driver updates for you.
Just open the NVIDIA GeForce Experience application, AMD’s Radeon Software Crimson Edition, or Intel’s Graphics Control Panel—whichever is on your computer. These often appear in your system tray, and you can usually find them with a quick Start menu search.
You could also just go straight to the source here. Head to NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel’s website to download the latest graphics driver package for your hardware and install it.
Even if you’re using Windows 10, you’ll probably want to do this — at least, if you’re a gamer. Windows 10 won’t be automatically updating graphics drivers every time NVIDIA or AMD releases a new version. These updates are really only necessary for people playing PC games, after all.
Use the Manufacturer’s Website
For other drivers, go straight to your hardware manufacturer’s website. If you have a laptop or a prebuilt desktop PC, go to its manufacturer’s website and look up the driver-download page for your specific model of computer. You’ll usually find a single web page with a long list of drivers you can download. New versions of these drivers are posted to this web page when available, and you’ll often see the dates when they were uploaded so you know which are new.
RELATED:How to Check Your BIOS Version and Update it
This is also the place you’ll generally find BIOS and UEFI firmware updates, but we don’t recommend installing these unless you have a really good reason to do so.
If you built your own desktop PC, you’ll have to download drivers from the manufacturer of each individual component. For example, go to your motherboard manufacturer’s website and look up the specific model of motherboard to find your motherboard drivers. Repeat this process for each individual hardware component.
Update Oem Drivers For Windows 10
The good news is that you don’t have to do most of this. Windows—especially Windows 10—automatically keeps your drivers reasonably up-to-date for you.
If you’re a gamer, you will want the latest graphics drivers. But, after you download and install them once, you’ll be notified when new drivers are available so you can download and install them.
Oem Website Drivers
For other driver updates, you can simply check the manufacturer’s website for new versions. This isn’t usually necessary, and you don’t need to do it unless you have a specific reason to do so. Windows keep your hardware drivers up-to-date enough.
Image Credit: Quasic on Flickr
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