Windows 7 is a new operating system and many devices connected on your computer may not respond properly if their latest Windows 7 compatible drivers are not installed. These updated device drivers are not available in the Windows 7 installation disk and needs to be installed from the manufacturer’s webs site. Since Windows 7 is a new version of Windows so not all the hardware manufacturers have developed the updated drivers and most of them are in developing state. Manufacturers release the drivers as and when they develop and test it.
You would mostly require the updated drivers for the following devices:
Bluetooth Devices, Motherboard Chipset Drivers, Disk Drive Drivers, Optical Drives Driver and the Graphic Card drivers.
How to Update the Drivers?
The most easy and convenient method of installing an updated driver is from Windows 7 itself. For updating a driver for any device, open Device Manager and browse to the device for which you want an updated driver. Right click on the device and select “Update Driver”. After clicking on update driver, click on “Search automatically for updated driver software”. This action will make Windows 7 to search for any updated driver over the internet and will install the update if available.
If Windows 7 is unable to update the drivers automatically then you can search for the Windows 7 compatible driver on the manufacturer’s web site. On finding the correct driver download it and save it on your hard drive. Most of the manufacturers bundle their drivers in a software distribution package which when executed installs the drivers itself. If the driver which you have downloaded does not have an installer then follow the steps given below to install it correctly.
1. Open Device Manager and select the device for which you want to install the updated driver
2. Right click the device and go to properties and then click on the “Drivers” tab in the properties window.
3. Click on the “Update Driver” button in the Drivers tab. This action will open a wizard for you and then you have to click on “Browse my computer for driver software”
4. Next please click on “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” and then click on “Have Disk”
5. Now click on the Browse button and locate to the folder where you have downloaded the driver files. There should be one file with an extension of “.inf”. This is the actual driver information file and this file is used for identifying the device and installing the driver.
6. Select the .inf file and click on OK. Continue with the installation by providing positive responses like ”Yes”, “Next” and “I Agree” which ever comes on to the screen.
Some INF files have capability of installing themselves and this can be checked by right clicking on the INF file and then clicking on “Install” in the context menu. If the file can be installed in this manner then it will install by itself or else it will let you know that this kind of installation is not supported and you have to install it through the Device manager.
