How to Install Drivers

Last Updated: 4 years ago

As you know, a driver is software that a device uses to work with your PC. When your device isn’t working properly, you can check if the driver is installed correctly. Faulty driver could always be the cause. To fix the problem, you need to update the driver. For some devices, Windows can update the driver automatically. For some devices especially external devices, you need to install the updated drivers yourself, then you need to download the driver manually.

Download the driver manually

To download new drivers, go to PC manufacturer’s website or device manufacturer’s website. Driver updates are often available in the Support section of their website. If you are using a branded computer, it is recommended that you go to the PC manufacturer’s website to check for the latest driver first, as they may customize the driver. You are required to use the PC model and the operating system that you are using to download the correct driver. Usually, the PC model can be found on the machine. See How to Get Operating System. If you need to download the driver from device manufacturer, then you are required to know the device model.

How to install the driver

The downloaded driver file will be an executable file (File name ends in “.exe”.) or a zip file (File name ends in “.zip”.).

For executable file, to install the driver, you just need to double-click on the file and follow the on-screen instructions.

For zip file, you need to unzip it and find the executable file in the archive. If you cannot find an executable file, you need to install the driver step by step using the “.inf” file. Following steps are for your reference how to install the driver in this way.

2. Find the device that need to install a driver. (Here let’s take video card for example.)

3. Right-click on the device and select Update Driver Software…

4. Select Browse my computer for driver software.

5. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.

6. Click Have Disk… button.

7. Click Browse… button. Navigate to the folder where you saved the downloaded driver file and browse the .inf driver file.

8. Click OK button then Next button to finish the installation. You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.

If you have difficulty in downloading and installing drivers manually, or if you want to save more time in updating drivers, you can use Driver Easy to help you.

Driver Easy can scan your computer to detect all problem drivers in several seconds, then give you new drivers. It has Free version and Paid version. You can use the Free version to update drivers one at a time. With Paid version, to update drivers, all you need to do is click your mouse 2 times.

1. Click Scan Now button. Then Driver Easy will scan your computer quickly and provide you with new drivers instantly.

2. Click Update All button. Then all drivers will be downloaded and installed automatically.

If you upgrade the program to Paid version, you will enjoy free technical support and 30-day money back guarantee. Just contact our professional support for further assistance regarding any driver problem. And you You can ask for a full refund for any reason.

Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware

Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020

We recommend you move to a Windows 10 PC to continue to receive security updates from Microsoft.

You can have Windows automatically download recommended drivers and detailed information for your hardware and devices. This is a good way to make sure all your hardware and devices work properly.

Drivers and information

Windows can find and download two kinds of updates for devices connected to your computer:

Drivers. A driver is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware devices. Without drivers, the devices you connect to your computer—for example, a mouse or external hard drive—won’t work properly. Windows can automatically check if there are drivers available for new devices that you connect to your computer.

For hardware that you’ve connected to your computer in the past, updated drivers might become available at a later date; but those drivers aren’t installed automatically. To install these optional updates, go to Windows Update in Control Panel, check for updates, and then view and install driver updates that are available for your computer.

Information. Windows can download high-resolution icons for many hardware devices that you connect to your computer, along with detailed information about them, such as product name, manufacturer, and model number—even detailed information about the sync capabilities of a device. These details can make it easier for you to distinguish between similar devices that are connected to your computer, such as different mobile phones.

You can check Windows Update at any time to see if it found new drivers and icons for your hardware, especially if you recently installed a new device. If you want to have Windows Update automatically check for the latest drivers and icons, here’s how:

Open Devices and Printers by clicking the Start button , and then, on the Start menu, clicking Devices and Printers.

Right-click the name of your computer, and then click Device installation settings.

Click Yes, do this automatically (recommended), and then click Save changes. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

If Yes is already selected, click Cancel to close the dialog box.

To get all important and recommended updates for your computer and your devices, make sure that Windows Update is turned on and configured properly.

Even if you have Windows Update set to automatically download and install all important and recommended updates, you still might not be getting all of the updated drivers available for your devices. For instance, optional updates might include updated drivers that become available for hardware or devices you’ve already installed. Windows doesn’t automatically download and install optional updates, but you will be notified when optional updates are available.

To get all the available updates for your devices, periodically check Windows Update for all available updates, including optional updates. You can review the available updates and then select them from the list of updates that Windows finds for your computer. Here’s how to do this:

Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Update, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Update.

In the left pane, click Check for updates, and then wait while Windows looks for the latest updates for your computer.

If there are any available updates, click the link in the box under Windows Update to see more information about each update. Each type of update might include drivers.

On the Select the updates you want to install page, look for updates for your hardware devices, select the check box for each driver that you want to install, and then click OK. There might not be any driver updates available.

On the Windows Update page, click Install updates. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Windows Update tells you if an update is important, recommended, or optional.

Some updates require you to restart your computer.

Windows Update will tell you if the updates were successfully installed.

How to Install a Driver Manually in Windows 7, 8, 10 (Basic .inf driver)

Every device needs a driver to communicate with the computer. As you all know, Device driver is a mandatory thing to communicate with any devices like printer, LAN card, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, audio device etc. Installing a device through its driver setup file is an easy task. But it won’t be easy, if you install a device through its basic driver (inf driver). Here in this article we’ll show you how to install a driver manually using its basic INF driver through device manager.

What are Basic Drivers?

Usually drivers comes as installer. They can be easily installed by running a setup file. But Basic drivers comes without installer. Basic drivers are available in INF format. So to install these type of basic drivers we need to perform some tasks manually. Basic drivers takes very less size, so they are easy to keep as backup. And some times full feature installer is unable to detect the device in this case also we have to install them manually. Sometimes the only basic driver is available for download instead of full feature driver (with installer). So, we only have an option to install the basic driver manually using its basic driver on our computer, but some peoples don’t know how to do it. Here in this article, we will show you how you can install a computer device using its basic “.inf” driver.

How to Install a Driver Manually using its basic driver

We are taking an example of a laptop Wi-Fi driver (Wireless card driver). So let’s get started without any delay.

Before starting you must have the basic driver files available with you. Or first download the drivers from the Internet. Then proceed the following steps

• Step 1: To install basic driver manually, you’ll require to download its basic driver (.sys, .inf driver) which should be in zip format.
  
• Step 2: Extract the zipped driver file to a location and copy the location path.
  
• Step 3: Right-click on “My computer / This PC” → click on Manage → Device Manager→ Other devices.
  
• Step 4: Under other devices you’ll see a device named “Network Controller“. Right-click on Network Device and click on Update driver. You may find the devices with Yellow mark which are without proper device drivers. Select your targeted device from the list.
  
• Step 5: Choose the second option “Browse my computer for driver software“.
  
• Step 6: Click on second option “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer“.
  
• Step 7: Click on Have Disk.
  
• Step 8: Click on Browse.
  
• Step 9: Now, paste the copied path in the “File name” field, and click on open button. Choose the INF file and click on Open. You may extract the full feature driver file and then find the .inf driver file in it.
  
• Step 10 : It will update the driver’s list, choose the driver “Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN” and then click on Next.
• Step 11: It will start installing the driver automatically and then it will give you the successfully installed message.
• Step 12: You could go to the device manger and check the basic driver (.inf) has been installed successfully.
  

If you are unable to find the appropriate drivers you may look for some driver finder utilities or automatic driver installer software. Check out the Best Driver Finder Software.