Where does the discussion of almost any problem with equipment on technical forums begin? That's right, with a suggestion to update the driver. The fact is that a driver is a program, and its developers collect feedback and bug reports that users send them, and then release new versions with bug fixes. But how do you check if you have the latest drivers for your devices? In this article, you'll learn how to check for up-to-dateness and update drivers without resorting to non-standard tools and third-party applications.
Does Windows update device drivers?
To see a list of your hardware and their drivers, run regular tool sysdm.cpl. To do this, press the keys Win+R, type the name of this program in the line that appears and press Enter.
In the System Properties window, select the Hardware tab.
Remembering the name of sysdm.cpl is not necessary at all. There is an easier way - press Win + Pause, in the window that appears, select " Extra options systems." The result will be the same.
By clicking the "Device Installation Settings" button, you can check the settings automatic update Windows drivers.
Only the setting is indicated here, and the driver update itself takes place in Windows Update, along with the installation of updates to the system itself and application programs Microsoft.
How to update the driver yourself?
If you have doubts about freshness installed driver your device, you can start updating it manually. To do this, launch the Device Manager (I recommend calling it from the System window using Win + Pause). Now, in the device tree, select the equipment we are interested in and right-click on "Update driver".
The result of the operation should be a system message about the successful update of the driver.
If the system did not find the driver
However, there is a chance that in your hands, or rather in your system unit, there will be a device for which Windows cannot find a driver on its own. Then you have to install it from the disk or the manufacturer's website. When updating a device driver, you should select "Locate a driver on this computer" and specify the path to the folder where you downloaded it.
For most modern devices operating system Microsoft Windows itself is able to find a suitable driver without your participation. Just check if automatic driver updates are enabled.
If you decide to try some beta driver from the device developer at your own risk, then update it manually through the "Find a driver on this computer" option.
Also, do not forget about the built-in mechanism for automatically updating drivers, which are supplied by the driver developer himself. Do not turn it off if you want to have the most current versions installed drivers.
How to find out what updates operating system Windows installed on your computer or server? can open Control Panel then Add/Remove Programs, or the Update History element in Windows 7/2008 and view the list installed updates, however, using GUI you can neither download this list nor search it.
In this case, the command line will be useful. With the command wmic qfe list you can display a detailed list of all updates that are installed on a given Windows system.
To open the command line, press the key combination R, in the window that appears, enter cmd and already in the appeared command line writing a command
wmic qfe list
press the Enter key, it should look like this:
In the output of this command, you can see what is installed, by which user, and when, as well as a link to a Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article. To get a list of installed updates in text form, you can simply redirect the output of this command to a text file and then open it in your favorite text editor:
wmic qfe list > updatelist.txt && updatelist.txt
Text file named updatelist.txt will be created in the directory C:\Windows\System32\.
If you need to find out if a specific Windows update is installed on a given system (for example, KB2536275), you can use the command find, redirecting the output to it:
wmic qfe list | find "KB2536275"
From the above example, you can see that update KB2536275 is installed.
Another way to view installed updates in Windows is to use the “systeminfo” utility. This command, unlike the previous one, will display only a list of KB numbers (in addition to system information). V this case you can also redirect the output of this command to a text file:
systeminfo > sysinfo.txt && sysinfo.txt
However, be careful, all these commands display only installed updates and hotfix* for Windows OS itself, there is no information about updates for any other Microsoft products (such as UAG, Office, TMG, SQL, or Exchange). To view the installed updates for these products, you need to type in the start menu: View installed updates, after which it will open standard window, accessible from the control panel.
For searching specific update you can in the search box, on the right upper corner type KB and update number, but the search is not very correct, so sometimes it's easier to find desired update by simply browsing the list.
Also, when installing updates, do not forget that they require a system restart.
* hotfix- These are patches that fix bugs in software products that are already on the market.
Code: 12939124
Get started with this quick and easy guide to checking your computer for driver updates and keeping them up to date.
Driver updates can help:
- Fixed bugs, bugs and other issues with older drivers
- Improve the long-term reliability of your equipment
- Improving device performance
- Unlock and use special features supported by your hardware.
- Support for the latest hardware and software
- Improve compatibility with new operating systems
- Extend the life of your computer
How to find driver updates
This guide shows three ways to scan your computer for driver updates and find out which drivers need to be updated.
- Using the Windows Driver Update Wizard
How to search for driver updates:
- Click the button Start, select an item Run, enter mmc devmgmt.msc and press Enter. On Windows 7 or more late version you can just type device manager in the search box.
- In the Device Manager window, find the device you want to update. Right-click it and select " Update driver" .
- This will launch the Driver Update Wizard, which will either give you the option to install the update you've already downloaded, or let Windows search in base data windows update
available updates drivers.
While this seems simple enough, the results usually vary between computers. There are many posts about windows updates do not provide the most Latest updates . Worse than that, the process of updating drivers through Device Manager can be tedious and overwhelming for everyday users.
Update drivers through the manager Windows devices
Visiting the website of a PC manufacturer or hardware manufacturer
Almost all hardware manufacturers offer device drivers for download on their support pages. If you have a branded PC like HP or Dell, just go to their website, find the support page and enter your model number or service tag to see the results. If you have a custom computer, you will need to visit the websites various manufacturers, depending on the hardware components installed on your computer.
Even though it's the perfect way driver updates, in the maze of support information, a fair percentage of users are lost.
Some end up misidentifying Hardware and load the wrong drivers and the rest just give up halfway through. So if you manage to download the right drivers, you can follow the instructions included to successfully install them on your computer.
Downloading drivers from hardware manufacturers
- Usage automatic program driver updates
It would be inconvenient if it were possible to automatically scan your computer for driver updates and install them in several simple steps?
Well, that's exactly what driver update programs will help. Luckily, we offer a program that is perfect for your driver update needs.
Scan results from ReviverSoft Driver Reviver
