Installing Drivers in Windows

[OscarMike]

so i made this post in response to someones thread. i thought i would make a new thread out of it just in case people needed to know how to install random drivers on their windows pc. 

this is just the way we do it at my work. im sure there are other ways but this is the safest way we have found. we do use drp.su to find the correct driver. if you follow the guide then there is very little chance you will install the wrong one or instal malicious content.

GPU and chipset drivers can usually be found on the manufacturer website. this guide is more for those illusive items which your not sure what they are. if this is the case use this guide to install the correct driver.

 

right click the windows icon bottom left of your toolbar. select device manager. here you can see which devices need drivers.

Find the device which you want drivers for. for audio device it will probably say (high definition audio device)

right click it and click "Properties"

 

Under the "Details" tab select "hardware IDs" in the drop down menu

 

then right click the id and click "copy". i usually select the second one as i get more accurate hits. 

 

Go to drp.su (it has a very extensive driver library) we have used this site for years and has yet to fail us. just dont download their automatic driver installer pack thing. 

paste the hardware ID in the bar and select the driver from the drop down. 

 

you should get a screen like this. usually we use windows 7 x64 drivers as they work 99% of the time. you can try windows 10 ones but they can be a little hit and miss. download the ZIP. 

 

Find the zip on your system and unpack it. then head back to your device manager. right click on the device (u can close all the other things with hardware ids and stuff) and instead of "properties" select update driver. then click the bottom option to browse for drivers. then simply click the browse button and locate the folder. select the folder where you have the driver unpacked inside. (you dont have to go into the folder just the main folder which has the driver in it.) Hit "next" and it will update.

i know this is abit of a roundabout way to install drivers but its the safest. the windows tool will not install anything if it is the wrong driver or have malicious content. if it installs that means it was the right driver for the right device. downloading a random driver and directly installing using the exe can lead to problems if its the wrong driver or it could have malicious stuff depending on where you get the driver from. Hope this helps.

[WhitetailAni]

And this is how you can accidentally corrupt Windows,

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

If this is how your workplace does it... then they're just asking for some sort of massive malware infection on their network in the future. 

[OscarMike]

Just now, ragnarok0273 said:

And this is how you can accidentally corrupt Windows,

sometimes you come across a site which you can trust a site that doesnt nessasarily seem legit. such as crystal disc info and the like. we have found drp.su to be very reliable. we run a second hand pc store and install windows on machines on a daily basis. we have been doing it for as long as i have worked there (about 2 years) and not once have we gotten malware or an infected pc.

[WhitetailAni]

I guess you don't mess with as much legacy/weird hardware than I do, then.

[Coolmaster]

What devices do you use that don't come with drivers, or aren't GPU or chipset drivers, or aren't autoinstalled by Windows?

[WhitetailAni]

250MB ATAPI Zip drive, PCIe FireWire card, parallel/serial card.

I think I might have set the jumper wrong, though - once I have a reason to open it up I will check.

 

[OscarMike]

1 minute ago, Coolmaster said:

What devices do you use that don't come with drivers, or aren't GPU or chipset drivers, or aren't autoinstalled by Windows?

a common one is the audio driver. a lot of these old laptops use the realtek high definition audio but windows wont install that directly it will just say (high definition audio device)

[OscarMike]

5 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

I guess you don't mess with as much legacy/weird hardware than I do, then.

no not really. if its too old to make a donatable pc then we dont use it. anything with IDE or early core2 duos we simply throw out. some later core 2 duos we keep and fix up to donate to people.

[GoodBytes]

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