The question of how to update drivers on Windows 10 has become very relevant in our time, since the new operating system from Microsoft has received certain differences from the interface of previous versions. The difficulties of this process are experienced by both novice and experienced users. Therefore, a clear and detailed answer is needed on how to update one or more drivers for free.
There are a lot of ways to update. They are effective for all PCs and have their own characteristics. Some of them update all hardware by performing a standard driver installation. Other methods are geared towards graphics cards, as their effectiveness often depends on the software. Therefore, it makes sense to consider each of them in more detail.
When a system is installed on a computer, driver integration is automatically performed. Usually, those versions that were released before the release of the installer are used. However, using the online update, you can always get the latest developments of programmers.
You can also update in the standard way using the device manager. This method looks like this:
- Click the search button.
- In the tab that appears, you must enter "Device Manager" to open a special window where all the equipment installed on the computer will be displayed.
- Next, select the line that will correspond to the required device, and right-click on it.
- In the panel that appears, select "Update driver".
- After that, you will be asked to select several search options, each of which has its own characteristics. You must select the automatic method, which will then search even on the network.
Special programs
Updating each device individually is rather tedious and impractical. Therefore, some experts recommend the use of third-party programs that not only monitor the release of new products, but also have a number of additional functions:
- DriverPack Solution - able to update even if there is no Internet connection;
- Driver Booster - has the ability to install drivers in bulk, on all devices at once;
- Slim Drivers - finds even those versions that other programs cannot find.
On a PC, this program can be used as follows:
- download the installation file from the site;
- install the software;
- the application uses its own driver database, which means that it must also be downloaded using the program itself;
- check and update.
Having the offline update feature is great when reinstalling Windows on your computer or when troubleshooting the system. Therefore, this application is very popular.
For the program to function properly in offline mode, you will need to download a special disk image from the site. It is opened in any emulator.
You will have to update the drivers manually, separately for each device. At the same time, their download speed will leave much to be desired. However, it deserves attention, because:
- works offline even if auto-update has been disabled;
- allows you to create a backup of the system;
- is able to find a video driver even for unique and rare equipment.
At the same time, Driver Booster updates not only to the latest versions from the official manufacturer, but installs special, more advanced drivers. They allow you to increase the performance of your hardware, which is great for demanding games and powerful programs.
This software can be downloaded from the official website. It is a standard application for finding and installing drivers, but it has some differences.
The fact is that automatic driver updates cannot always find the necessary software. Some companies, when creating software for hardware, don't care about being easy to find. Even eminent Nvidia does not spend money on promotion and advertising of a product that is distributed for free.
At the same time, small companies produce devices for which it is generally problematic to find sound drivers or optical drive drivers. However, this program copes with even the most complex tasks.
Intel Driver Update Utility Installer and AMD Driver Autodetect
These programs can be downloaded from the official website. Next, the following sequence of actions is performed:
- Installation is in progress on the computer.
- When you start the program, it independently searches and identifies all devices from its manufacturer.
- Next, the application will offer to download the new version of the drivers and install them.
- After your confirmation, the whole process will be carried out automatically.
This program can be downloaded from the official website. It is designed to work with drivers for video cards and other devices manufactured by NVIDIA.
Official websites of equipment manufacturers
Typically, video card drivers are downloaded directly from the hardware manufacturer's websites. This makes it possible not only to receive timely updates, but also to install the latest versions of additional software. However, it is important to remember that for such manipulations it is important to know your OS and some other computer configurations.
The installation process looks like this:
- First you need to find out the manufacturer of the video card. To do this, click the "Search" button and enter the phrase "Device Manager".
- In the window that opens, we find the item video adapter, where the name of the manufacturer will be. Usually this is NVIDIA and Radeon, but it can also be Intel.
Instead of output
Thus, you can install drivers for a network card, sound adapter, or motherboard using the automatic update function. They are almost always included in the operating system and practically do not cause any problems. However, the graphics driver requires special attention, since the performance of the video card depends on it.
Its updates are best downloaded from the device manufacturer's website. You can also find other useful add-ons for your video card there. If you cannot find the necessary driver yourself, then it makes sense to use special programs. It is very difficult to determine which of them are the best, since there are serious differences. Everyone should decide on their own, focusing on their needs.
Video
We have also prepared for you a video dedicated to the topic under consideration.
DriverPack Solution Online is a quick and easy way to find and download one or another "vital" driver for a webcam, video or audio card, Wi-Fi adapter, printer, etc.
The free DriverPack Solution program is designed to automate the process of installing, updating, and searching for drivers in the Windows OS environment, and is distributed by the developer in several versions, including online and offline versions. The advantage of the latter is that to download almost any necessary driver for a sound, network card, wi-fi, etc., an Internet connection is not required - all drivers are already in the DriverPack Solution database, which can be written to a disk or USB flash drive , and be extremely useful from time to time, for example, when reinstalling the operating system. With all this, the main drawback of the offline version of DriverPack Solution can be considered the volume of the full database - almost 11 GB, which is unlikely to be acceptable for users with a slow or limited Internet connection.
In order not to download the entire database of drivers, but to find and install only those that require updating or are missing in the system, the developers offer an alternative solution in the form of an online version that is absolutely free, easy to use, and its distribution is less than 3 MB in size, its only drawback (if it can be considered as such) is the strictly obligatory presence of an Internet connection.
And so, how to find and install the necessary drivers using DriverPack Solution Online:
- Download the program (from the official website or from us);
- We launch the program, and we see something like the following (we strongly recommend choosing a manual installation);
- In the "Install Drivers" menu, we see a list of drivers that require updating (example in the screenshot), but we do not click the "Install All" button!
for the reason that we kindly suggest installing some additional programs in the load (marked with checkmarks in the screenshot), to open the list of programs, click on the “Soft” menu (in the screenshot).
Thus, if you choose automatic installation at the initial stage, then along with the drivers, the programs marked with checkboxes (although not bad ones) would get to the computer.
Then we just have to wait for the download and installation process to complete, click "Finish" on this process is completed.
In conclusion, let's clarify this point - many users probably noticed the button "Do you want to disable Windows surveillance?" on the left side of the DriverPack Solution Online menu.
By pressing this button, after a short period of time, we see the message “Windows tracking was successfully disabled”, while the button works not only in Windows 10, where the problem of user data privacy is particularly relevant, but also in other versions of the operating system from Microsoft - Windows 8 and Windows 7, in connection with this, a reasonable question arises: “what exactly is being disabled, and does this function work at all?”.
This functionality works, but it is extremely problematic to completely block the transmission channel of user data (telemetry data) in Microsoft. This is because, along with the well-known data transmission channels that DriverPack Solution Online blocks (for example, some Windows updates, blocking requests to a number of currently known data collection servers over IP, disabling various kinds of services responsible for sending "diagnostic data ”, prohibition of sending an error report to Microsoft, etc.), there are a number of channels that are not yet known, and besides, from time to time Microsoft introduces new ways of collecting data (for example, with the release of the next update), etc. Therefore, it is a priori impossible to completely disable surveillance in Windows, especially with regard to Windows 10.
To maintain the normal operation of the computer, it is necessary to update drivers from time to time, but searching for and installing them manually is boring and time consuming. And why? After all, this work is easy to automate. Today we will consider the ten best programs for updating drivers on PCs and laptops of all brands and models.
Intel Driver Update Utility Installer is a proprietary utility for finding and updating drivers for any Intel products (processors, system logic, network devices, drives, server components, and more). Compatible with Windows XP, 7 and newer editions of this system.
The hardware of the PC on which it is installed is automatically recognized by the utility. Checking for new versions of drivers on the Intel website is done by clicking the "Search" button, downloading and installing - at the request of the user.
In addition, the Intel Driver Update Utility Installer allows you to find and download drivers for any other Intel devices of your choice from the list (option "Search manually").
The developers warn that the application installs only typical drivers that do not take into account the features of a particular brand of computer. Therefore, before launching it, it is worth visiting the website of the manufacturer of your PC or laptop and checking if there is anything suitable there.
AMD Driver Autodetect
AMD Driver Autodetect is a similar proprietary tool from AMD. Designed to keep drivers of video cards of this brand up to date (except for AMD FirePro).
After installation, the utility will monitor the relevance of video drivers and ensure their timely updates. It automatically detects the model of the video card installed on the PC, as well as the bit depth and version of the operating system. When launched, it checks to see if there is a fresh driver on the AMD website. If there is, it informs about it and offers to download it. To start the installation, the user just needs to confirm his consent by clicking on the "Install" button.
AMD Driver Autodetect is also available exclusively for Windows.
NVIDIA Update
NVIDIA Update is a proprietary Windows utility for installing drivers on NVIDIA devices. Like AMD Driver Autodetect, it independently recognizes hardware models and checks for the latest driver on the manufacturer's website. The decision to install is up to the user.
Driver Pack Solution
DriverPack Solution is a lifesaver for service engineers, system administrators and those who earn extra money by providing Windows and software installation services. The application is a huge collection of drivers for devices of various brands and models, as well as a module for installing them.
DriverPack Solution is released in two versions - online and offline.
- The online distribution is designed to be used on a PC that has an Internet connection. Its difference is a small file size (285 Kb). After starting, the program scans Windows for installed drivers and the relevance of their versions, after which it connects to the database (on its own server) and performs automatic updates.
- The offline distribution (size 10.2 Gb) is intended for installing drivers on a machine that is not connected to the Internet. In addition to the installer, it comes with a database of 960,000 drivers for Windows 7, XP, Vista, 8 (8.1) and 10, both for 32 bit and 64 bit. After launch, the scanning module recognizes device types and installs drivers from its own offline database.
The online version of DriverPack Solution is convenient for permanent home use. In addition to keeping drivers up to date, it allows the user to automatically install and update individual applications, remove software junk, view a list of equipment, information about the operating system and computer security.
The offline version is an emergency solution. Its task is not to select the best, but simply the right driver to start the device. And then update it online.
DriverPack Solution and the proprietary utilities listed above are completely free.
Driver Genius
Driver Genius is a universal driver management tool. The latest edition of the program is the sixteenth, optimized for Windows 8 and 10, but can also run on older systems.
In addition to updating the versions of installed drivers, Driver Genius can:
- Create backup copies of drivers and save them as archives - regular and self-extracting, as well as in the form of an installer (exe). To restore from a backup, you do not need to use Driver Genius.
- Remove unused and failed drivers.
- Display information about computer hardware.
The backup feature is a real treasure for those who frequently reinstall Windows. However, the program itself is by no means a gift: the cost of one license is $29.95. You can use it for free only for 30 days.
Snappy Driver Installer
Snappy Driver Installer is an application created by one of the developers of DriverPack Solution and has a lot in common with the latter. Also available in two versions: SDI Lite and SDI Full.
- The SDI Lite variant is a module for recognizing devices and searching for suitable drivers on the Internet. Its size is 3.6 Mb. It does not have its own base.
- The SDI Full option is an installation module plus a base (31.6 Gb). Designed to install drivers regardless of Internet access.
Features of Snappy Driver Installer:
- Works without installation (only portable version, can be run from a flash drive or DVD).
- Completely free - no premium features or ads.
- With an improved selection algorithm, which is based on the principle of "do no harm".
- It has a high scanning speed.
- Creates a system restore point before installing the driver.
- Allows you to change themes according to the user's choice.
- Multilingual (there is a version in Russian, Ukrainian and other national languages).
- Adapted for Windows 10.
driver booster
iObit Driver Booster is an application loved by gamers. Available in editions Free - free, and Pro - paid. The subscription price for the latter is 590 rubles per year.
Driver Booster has one single function - scanning the system for outdated drivers and installing updates in one click. And not simple updates, but (according to the developers) tuned games to improve performance.
is a free and very simple utility for installing and updating PC drivers based on Windows 7, 8 and 10. Its database includes only original, signed drivers from the official websites of equipment manufacturers.
The application is designed for users with no experience. Support for the Russian language, a minimum of settings and one-button control practically exclude the possibility of confusing or breaking something. And if the new driver is not suitable, DriverHub will remove it from the system and return the old one to its place.
All features of DriverHub:
- Search for missing, update outdated drivers and additional software. Automatic installation.
- Simple and expert mode of operation. In expert mode, the user can select a driver from several available ones, in simple mode, the program itself selects the optimal version.
- Daily replenishment of the database of drivers.
- Storage of download history.
- Recovery - roll back drivers to previous versions.
- Display basic information about the computer.
- Launching Windows system utilities from its interface.
DriverMax Free
DriverMax is a free, uncomplicated, English-language utility, the main purpose of which is the same driver update. Unlike other free applications, it has another useful option - creating a system rollback point and backing up installed drivers of the user's choice. As well as restoring from a backup.
After installing DriverMax, it persistently reminds you that it would be nice to register on the site and buy a paid license with advanced features, one of which is fully automatic operation. Annual usage starts at $10.39.
Driver Magician
Driver Magician is the last hero of today's review. I had 2 versions in the recent past, one of which was free. Today there is only a paid one with a 13-day trial period. The cost of the license is $29.95.
There is no Russian language in Driver Magician, but it is not difficult to use it. The set of features is about the same as in Driver Genius:
- Scanning and updating.
- Creating backup copies of drivers with the ability to restore both with and without using the program (the backup is saved as a zip archive or an installer application).
- Uninstalling the driver.
- Backing up and restoring individual user folders - Internet Explorer Favorites, Desktop and Documents, as well as the system registry (in one file).
- Identification of devices unknown to the system.
In the trial period, the program is fully functional. Compatible with any version of Windows.
That, perhaps, is all. Choose what you like best and enjoy.
The good operation of a computer or laptop and the devices connected to it depends on whether the appropriate current drivers are installed.
A driver is a kind of program that is responsible for a given device and acts as an intermediary between it and the rest of the system.
You can install or update them in two ways: manually and using programs.
The first method is preferable, but not everything is simple with it. Many people switch, for example, from windows 7 to windows 10, and there may not be drivers for dozens on the site, since at the time the PC was released, there was no mention of windows 10.
Although this is not the main thing. The websites of some manufacturers are designed in such a way that they cannot be reached, then this task is greatly facilitated by programs.
There are dozens of programs for automatically updating drivers for windows 10, but almost all paid ones and no offense to developers do not always install what they need.
A good program of this type scans the system, compares the detected drivers with a database and indicates those that require intervention, and then searches for them on the websites of device manufacturers, downloads and installs them.
I have my favorite, reliable and free. She did not let me down, so below I will share it with you. You can download at the end of this post.
The best free software to automatically update drivers for windows 10
It is called "DevID Agent" and will help you easily update or install missing drivers, for example, after installing Windows, when the system does not recognize some components, for example, there is no sound or Wi-Fi.
She searches and allows them to be downloaded. You just have to put the birds and click the install selected button.
Identification of device drivers connected to the computer is the main feature of this free program.
Intuitive work, high efficiency of the program and the presence of the Russian language deserve special attention.
The program also offers to create a computer configuration restore point before installing new drivers, which allows you to restore the system to its previous state in case of failure.
You can download below. After downloading, extract it from the archive to install it.
Developer:
https://devid.info
operating system:
XP, Windows 7, 8, 10
Interface:
Russian
Hello admin! I recently installed Windows 10 on my computer, but drivers for some devices were not installed along with the operating system: a video card,PCI controller, some MEDIA and USB Device. On the Internet, they suggested that you need to wait a day or two and the drivers will be installed automatically, after three days this did not happen.Now in Device Manager, instead of the name of the video card, there is a Basic video adapter (Microsoft), Accordingly, the image on the monitor with a black bar and this is due to the low screen refresh rate of 64 Hz, but you need at least 75 Hz, then the band will disappear, but the desired frequency will appear only after installing a real driver on the video card.
I went to the official NVIDIA website and the drivers are there only for Windows 8.1. I downloaded the DriverPack Solution driver package, but it does not start on Windows 10, an error occurs. Question to how to install drivers on windows 10
Hello friends! Don't forget about the automatic driver search tool built into Windows 10. Microsoft servers contain a very large database of drivers for almost all known devices. In today's article, I will simply remind you how to use this tool, a more complete article lies
After installing Windows 10, go to the Device Manager and see devices (marked with a yellow triangle with an exclamation point) for which the drivers have not been installed. For example, let's open the Video adapters item and see that the basic Microsoft driver is installed on the video card, and the drivers for the sound and chipset of the motherboard are also not installed.
One good thing is that the drivers for the LAN connection network adapter and the Wi-Fi network adapter were automatically installed and we have the Internet. If Windows 10 did not find a driver for your network adapter during installation, then you will have no choice but to use another computer with the Internet and download the driver for the network card on, there are no drivers for Win 10 yet, but I'm sure that the driver is from Win 8.1 will definitely fit.
In Device Manager, right-click on the underlying Microsoft video adapter and select Update Driver Software.
Click on the button Automatically search for updated drivers.
The software for your video card is automatically searched on the Microsoft server.
Driver found and downloading
Installation.
We restart the computer
And we see that the driver for the video card is installed. In the same way, we install drivers for all devices with a yellow triangle and an exclamation mark.
Friends, if you don’t have drivers installed on Windows 10, then try the special ones. You can also try building drivers.