How do you update your device drivers in Windows 10?
In this video I'm going to show you 6 ways to update your drivers, and 1 way that you
should definitely avoid.
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Today's question comes from Swapnil B, who asked: "Can you make a video on how to update
drivers easily?"
And that's exactly what I'm going to show you. But first, what is a driver?
When you plug something into your computer, like a printer or a new keyboard, the computer
needs to know how to communicate with it. So the people who make the printer or the
keyboard provide a small piece of software called a driver, that tells Windows how to
talk to the device.
So you buy a new printer, and the instructions in the box tell you to download some software
to get the printer working. And this software includes the driver.
In fact, your computer has loads of devices built in - things like the graphics card,
the audio, the WiFi and the webcam these are all things that need a driver so that Windows
can use them.
The problem with drivers is, like the other software on your computer, they can contain
software glitches, bugs and security holes that need to be patched up from time to time.
So the people who make the drivers will release updates from time to time.
There are several ways to update your drivers. I'm going to start by showing you the easiest
ways, the ways that your computer updates the drivers automatically, and later on I'll
show you the manual ways that you can choose the driver that you need.
But a word of warning - there's one way to update your drivers that you definitely shouldn't
use, and this is the kind of commercial software that calls itself a driver updater, that costs
money and tells you it's going to keep all your drivers up-to-date. But at best this
is just doing something that Windows does itself, but charging for it, and at worst,
some of these programs out there, you don't know if they're going to be a virus or malware
or something. So steer clear of those driver update programs.
Before we start, just be aware that occasionally drivers can go wrong, it doesn't happen often
but it's possible to install a driver that will crash your computer. You should be able
to get your computer working again and remove the driver, but just in case there's a problem,
I want to make sure you have a backup of the important data on your computer before we
get going. So let's start with the first way of updating
your drivers, and that's Windows Update:
With Windows 10, your computer should be updating your drivers periodically, in the same way
it provides Windows Updates. We can see where this happens:
Go to Start, and then Settings, and then go down to Update & Security. Then make sure
you're in Windows Updates on the left hand side.
You'll see any available Windows updates here, and sometimes you'll see driver updates here
too. The updates you see here will get downloaded and installed automatically, but you can speed
up the process - if you can see a download button here, click on it and the update will
be downloaded and installed straight away.
This screen is a good way to see your driver updates as they happen, but if you want more
information on drivers, then you should look in the Device Manager.
The Device Manager is the place in Windows where you can see a list of all the devices
on your computer, and you can see which drivers are installed, and you can update those drivers.
Let's take a look at the Device Manager.
Right-click the Start icon, then click Device Manager.
You'll see all the devices on your computer, grouped into different categories, like Display
Adapters and Network Adapters.
You can click on the little arrow to expand a category to see the devices. You'll see
the manufacturer and model for each device.
Now you can double-click on a device to see its properties. And if you click on the Driver
tab at the top, you can see the date when this driver was released, and its version
number. And you can click on Update Driver to see if there's a newer version available
online. If there is a newer versions, this will download and install it for you automatically.
Sometimes Device Manager will tell you that you've got the best driver available, but
you might know that there's actually a newer driver out there somewhere. So if this method
doesn't work for you, then you'll need some of the other methods that I'll discuss later
in this video.
While we're in the Device Properties, you can also go back to a previous version of
a driver. This is called rolling back the driver. I'm going to click on Roll Back Driver.
You would normally do this if you've started getting problems after a driver has been updated,
and you want to go back to the driver you had previously. This screen asks you if you're
sure, and it wants to know why you're rolling back. And you would say Yes here, but I'm
just going to say No for now.
So the Device Manager is the best way to see the drivers that are already installed on
your computer, and it does let you update them too. But there is a better way to update
your drivers, and that's to use the update utility that the manufacturer will have installed
on your computer for you.
Depending on the make of your computer, it might come with a utility installed that lets
you know when any driver updates are available, and installs them for you. For example, if
you have a Dell computer, then it might have come with the Dell Update application.
I have an HP computer, and it came with the HP Support Assistant, which is the round blue
icon with a question mark.
If I click on this, it opens up the HP Support Assistant. You can see it knows exactly which
computer I have, and I can click on Updates to see if any updates are available. This
will let me download any driver updates, and it will install them for me.
You should find that a utility like this is more reliable than the Device Manager, because
the updates are coming directly from the manufacturer, so you'll get them as soon as they're available.
If you have any extra hardware installed, like a graphics card or a printer, then that
may have its own update utility installed. So for example if you have an Epson printer,
then look for an Epson utility on your computer that will update the drivers for you.
Now, not all computer manufacturers will provide an update utility like the one I just showed
you, but most manufacturers should have a website where you can download the drivers
yourself. So in the next section I'll show you how to do that.
You'll need to search online for the website for your computer manufacturer. I'm using
an HP computer, so I want to go to the HP website, which is hp.com.
Most of these websites are laid out the same way. You need to go to the Support section,
and look for Drivers.
Now we need to identify the model of my computer so I can get the right drivers. So I'm going
to choose Laptop. And you can type in the serial number or the model number here, but
I'm going to choose this option - Let HP detect your product.
Now they've found my model, so I'm going to click on this.
And they're showing me a list of all the drivers available for my computer.
If I pick, say, the Graphics Driver, I can see the version number and the release date.
And I can download the driver.
I can also get more details about the driver, and they sometimes have a list of improvements
that have been made with each version.
If you can't find the driver you're looking for on the website of the computer manufacturer,
then you might need to look on the website for the device manufacturer instead. So let's
look at that now.
Let's say I'm looking for a driver for the Intel HD Graphics built into my HP laptop.
I've already started by looking at the HP website, because the drivers they make are
going to be tailor-made for my particular laptop, so I know I've got more chance with
them. But let's say I've tried that and I'm having problems with that driver.
Well the next place to look would be the Intel website. So go to the Intel website, or whoever
makes the device, and search for the device name. And here you can see some different
options for the driver I need. So you can download the driver here.
But this website has a notice saying that it might be better to get the driver directly
from your computer manufacturer.
So you're free to experiment really, and try different versions of the driver and see what
works best for you.
And there is one more place you can download drivers from, and it goes full circle really,
because we're going to be looking at a Microsoft website.
Microsoft have a website that stores all the drivers that go into Windows Update.
You can get to it by going to catalog.update.microsoft.com and I've put a link to the website in the
description for this video.
And again I would say that you're always better trying the driver from your computer manufacturer
first, but this is an excellent website when you're stuck.
All you need to do is search for the driver you're looking for. You'll see a lot of results,
but when you look them you'll find that many of these are repeat entries. The main differences
you need to look out for are the date the drivers were released, and the version numbers.
You can click Download, and then download the driver.
You'll find that when you download a driver from the Microsoft Update Catalog, it comes
in a .cab format. The easiest way I've found to handle a .cab file is to open it up, then
select all the files, and go to copy.
Then come out of here, and create a new folder somewhere like on your desktop. Now go into
the folder, and go to paste. You need to wait while it pastes all the files. Then, remember
where this folder is, because we'll be looking for it shortly.
Next we need to open up the Device Manager. So right-click the Start Menu, and click Device
Manager.
Now find the device that you're installing the driver for. Right-click the device, and
click Update Driver. Now you need to click Browse My Computer. And you need to find the
folder we just created. And then click Next, and the Device Manager should be able to do
the rest.
So those are 6 ways you can update the drivers on your computer. There isn't a correct way
to update your drivers, each of them has their own merits - Windows Update is checking for
drivers on a regular basis, Device Manager lets you know what's installed and it will
let you update the drivers, and the manufacturer's website and the manufacturer's utility will
let you know when the manufacturer has released the correct drivers for your device. And if
you still can't find the drivers you're looking for then you've got the device manufacturer's
website, and you've got the Microsoft website.
So did that help you update the drivers on your computer?
Please let me know in the comments below how you got on, and if you found this video useful
please give it the thumbs up. If you’d like to see more tutorials from
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And while you're here, why not check out one of my other videos.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.