You might need to perform a driver update in Windows for all kinds of reasons. Usually, a driver update is used as a solution to an issue with how Windows works with a piece of hardware.
Updating a driver can also enable new or updated features for the hardware.
The driver update wizard walks you through the entire driver update process, making updating drivers a fairly painless task.
Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP all have slightly different processes for completing driver updates:
- How To Update Drivers in Windows 8
- How To Update Drivers in Windows 7
- How To Update Drivers in Windows Vista
- How To Update Drivers in Windows XP
Updating a hardware device's driver is usually the first troubleshooting step to any hardware issue in Windows.
In particular, a simple driver update will often correct many of the common Device Manager error codes.
Important: If you're running a 32-bit version of Windows, you must install 32-bit drivers. If you're running a 64-bit version of Windows, you must install 64-bit drivers.
Not sure what version of Windows you have? See Am I Running a 32-bit or 64-bit Version of Windows? and learn how to find out.
