Let’s talk about installing Windows 10 Drivers on your PC or device.
As you may know already, we discussed what Windows 10 drivers are on our Windows 10 Drivers page.
Just to do a quick recap, a Windows 10 driver is a piece of software that tells your computer how to handle a device or other software connected to your Windows 10 device.
Windows 10 uses a device driver to communicate with add-on devices like, a printer, a scanner, or speakers.
As I said, the driver is basically a program that tells Windows 10 how to run the device.
Even though Microsoft does not make them, many drivers ship with Windows 10, and are automatically installed during the setup process of the operating system.
Every now and then though, you may have to either install or update drivers yourself.
Third party vendors are usually responsible for making their drivers work with Windows 10.
Generally, Windows 10 will warn you during installation if any of your hardware is incompatible.
When you plug in new hardware, most of the time Windows will recognize it and install the drivers. If it doesn’t, it is usually easy to find the drivers yourself.
Since Microsoft is only one company, they cannot be expected to support the hundreds of thousands of vendors that make Windows compatible hardware.
This is why hardware makers are individually responsible for making their hardware work with your PC.
Most manufacturers maintain drivers for several years, providing updates for them when needed. These are usually delivered in zipped archives (.zip) containing the drivers and an executable installer.
So find the make and model of your hardware, peripheral or accessory, and see if you can locate the drivers on the official website of the company that produces the hardware.
Download the files to an easy to access location, preferably your Windows 10 desktop and then follow the steps below to manually install your drivers in Windows 10.
How to install or update Windows 10 Drivers
The best way to handle hardware issues and install drivers is through the Device Manager. Let’s walk through the steps.
1. Open the Control Panel in Windows 10 by pressing the Winkey + X at the same time. Winkey is the Windows key on your keyboard. The Power User Menu will pop up.
2. Select the Control Panel option from here.
3. If you can’t see all the different options in the panel, then change the view to Small icons, and all options will be displayed.
4. Go to Device Manager.
5. Expand the categories in the Device Manager and locate the device you want to update the driver for.
In this example, we will update the driver for the High Definition Audio Device by clicking it and then selecting the Update Driver Software… option.
6. A windows will pop-up with two choices. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
7. Click on Browse and then select the location of the downloaded driver file. You can also copy and paste the location of the downloaded driver files into the location address bar.
8. Hit Next and Windows 10 will try and automatically find the associate driver and install it.
Now a computer restart is usually not needed, but if it is necessary do a reboot and your drive will be installed, and the hardware ready to use.
Other options for installing Windows 10 drivers
If you can’t find Windows 10 versions of the drivers you need, try installing Windows 8 versions, as they sometimes work.
If that doesn’t work, it’s time to look for other solutions online.
Windows 10 Driver software solutions
You can also use software alternatives like our driver partner Driver Booster. iObit Driver Booster is an application designed to help you deal with drivers in a straightforward and easy way.
It relies on a set of dedicated tools to update drivers, create backups and restore them in just a few minutes. Using Driver Booster is not at all difficult because it comes with a straightforward interface that guides you through the whole process.
You can check out Driver Booster here.
Summary
The bottom line is, installing drivers in Windows 10 is very similar to installing drivers in previous versions of Windows.
As Windows 10 becomes the standard for all PC’s around the world, more and more vendors will update their drivers and finding standard drivers for Windows 10 will be less of a problem.
I hope this was helpful. Please share on Facebook and Twitter if this added some value to you.