Be it the need of some new software or the necessity of running a heavy hardware device, a driver update gets your Windows up to date with all the security ramp ups and fixes for random bugs.
Looked in that light, driver updates are an essential for not only running different hardware devices, but also for keeping your PC running smoothly. Here’s how you can get started.
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Update Device Drivers in Windows 11
A driver is a software necessary to run hardware on your PC; to put it briefly, it’s that which breathes fire into your computer. Like most updates, driver updates are installed automatically on your Windows. There are, however, multiple ways to download and update device drivers manually. Let’s go over all them one by one.
1. Device Manager
Device Manger is a central hub that lets you manage the hardware connected to your PC. It lets you view, manage and control different aspects of a computer hardware. Think of it as a place that gives you a bird’s-eye view of your computer’s hardware. Anytime something goes off with it, you can access Device Manager to fix the problem.
Apart from viewing devices and fixing different bugs, it also provides the option to update your drivers. Here’s how:
First, you’ll need to open the Device Manager. To do that, go to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘device manager,’ and select the Best match.
The Device Manager will be launched. Choose a specific driver that you’d like to update, right-click on it and select Update driver. For example, here we’ve picked the keyboard driver.
On the next window, click on the Search automatically for drivers option to go ahead with the update.
Windows will then search for any new, available updates at the Microsoft. If any new updates are found, simply follow the institutions for installation. In our device, for example, the most up-to-date drivers are already installed and there aren’t any new updates in the Device Manager.
2. Windows Update
Windows Update, as the name suggests, is a special place in Settings that lets you update your Windows drivers, apart from a host of other related things.
To get stared with this method, go to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘Windows update settings’, and click on the Best match.
The Windows Update menu will be launched. From there, click on Advanced options and select the “Optional updates” menu, from right under the “Additional options” section.
Like in our case, if no new updates are available, you should see something like this on the settings menu:
Otherwise, go to the Driver updates tab and select a driver you’d like to update. Now click on Download and install to proceed with the download.
3. Through Manufacturer’s Website
This rarely happens but in some cases, the driver updates released by the manufacturer might take a while to arrive at Microsoft store, and so, in those situations, you might’ve to manually download them from the Manufacturer’s website.
Navigate to the website of your hardware manufacturer and look for a drivers download section. See if there are any driver downloads available, and proceed with the update if you’d want to avoid the waiting time.
Updating Drivers in Windows 11
Updates in general are a good method for keeping your PC protected and functioning. They do this by keeping your PC up-to-date with the latest security patch ups, and also through keeping random PC bugs at bay. Hopefully, one of the methods from above was successful for you, and helped you update Windows 11 drivers without any difficulties.
