Join , subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. All your computer hardware, from the motherboard to the webcam, needs drivers to function properly.
When you install Windows on a computer or connect a peripheral to your PC, Windows automatically downloads and installs the appropriate drivers. Device manufacturers upload these official drivers to Windows Update so Windows can install them automatically.
Any important updates are delivered via Windows Update, too. This is the safest way to update your drivers on Windows , because they go through fairly extensive testing by Microsoft. Windows Update has more drivers on Windows 10, so this works better on Windows 10 systems. These tools allow you to optimize your games , record and stream your gameplay , take screenshots , and easily update your graphics drivers in the future.
You can also download the free version of Speccy , which can show you this information about many of your devices. If you purchased a desktop computer or laptop, you just need to know which manufacturer and model number of computer you have.
The model name and number is often printed on a label somewhere on the PC itself, and should also be on any box or receipt you have. You can use the Device Manager to view hardware devices connected to your PC. Look through the list of devices in the Device Manager window to find the names of hardware devices connected to your PC. Those names will help you find their drivers. You can often identify an unknown device by looking at its hardware ID. Brother offers a variety of drivers for its printers, fax machines, and scanners.
Corsair makes hardware utilities available for its gaming mice, keyboard, and headsets. Creative provides downloads for its Sound Blaster hardware and other peripherals. Dell makes drivers for its Inspiron, Latitude, XPS, and other PC hardware products available online, as well as drivers for any other Dell products you might have.
Epson offers downloads for its printers, scanners, projects, and other hardware devices. Intel offers driver downloads for everything from its Intel integrated graphics to its Wi-Fi hardware, Ethernet controllers, motherboards with Intel chipsets, and Intel solid-state drives. You may need to jump through some hoops to install the latest Intel graphics drivers if your PC manufacturer tries to stop you.
Microsoft offers driver downloads for products like Microsoft mice and keyboards. For Surface devices, Microsoft normally distributes drivers only through Windows Update. However, manual Surface driver downloads are also available if you really need them. MSI provides downloads for its laptops, desktops, motherboards, graphics cards, gaming peripherals, and other products. Realtek makes audio drivers available on its website, although you can likely get the Realtek high definition audio drivers for your PC from your PC or motherboard manufacturer, too.
Sony still hosts driver downloads for its discontinued VAIO laptops and desktops as well as various Sony-made accessories. SteelSeries offers the SteelSeries Engine hardware utility for its gaming headsets, mice, and keyboards. Usually, this involves decompressing the many driver files located in the compressed file you downloaded. There are free file extractor programs that will handle this job for you. Most compressed files have a file extension of ZIP or maybe RAR , but most of the programs in that list will handle either, like 7-Zip.
Sometimes the compressed files are in a self-extracting format with an EXE file extension, making the install process very easy. The downloaded drivers for your hardware are now ready for updating in Device Manager. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
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Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Updated on September 11, Tweet Share Email. Apps Best Apps Payment Services. For example, the driver CD you receive with your printer likely contains the drivers for many different printers and may not have the printer you purchased. When installing the drivers, make sure you are install the drivers for your printer and not another printer model.
Also, make sure you are installing it for the version of Windows you are running on your computer. Once the location of the drivers is found, you must determine how the drivers are packaged. If the folder contains executable files or a setup file, you can install the driver using an executable.
If the directory contains. If you have a CD with drivers, but the computer has no functioning disc drive, you can also download the drivers.
Or, if you have access to another computer, you can copy the drivers from the CD to a USB flash drive. For help with copying files, see: How to copy files. After the drivers are copied to a USB flash drive , floppy , or another drive, they can also be installed from that drive. Once the drive is connected to the computer, open Windows Explorer and then the drive letter for the computer drive.
For example, if you have a USB drive that is assigned the E: drive when connected, you would open the E: drive. Once the drivers are found on the drive, you must determine how the drivers are packaged. If the directory contains executable files or a setup file, you can install the driver using an executable.
If the drivers are compressed into a. If you have not yet downloaded the drivers, you can find drivers for your computer through the computer or device manufacturer. For links to the websites of prominent computer hardware manufacturers, see our hardware drivers index.
If you're downloading drivers to install on another device, you can copy or extract the files to a USB flash drive and connect it to the other computer. After the drivers are downloaded, you must determine how the drivers are packaged. When extracting the drivers, remember where the folder containing the drivers is located since it needs to be known during the driver installation process.
We recommend extracting files to a folder on the Windows desktop , as it's an easy place to remember. Today, many computer and hardware manufacturers are pre-packaging their drivers into executable files or have the drivers installed through the setup file. Double-clicking the executable or setup file should install the drivers to the computer for you.
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