How to update my drivers
Hopefully, you're here because you know the importance of maintaining your PC and keeping it in good condition so that it lasts longer and performs better, making your experience more enjoyable. If so, congratulations, because the first step is recognizing that and the next involves regularly maintaining it by cleaning it (inside and out) and keeping all of your software and drivers up to date. If you do this, you should notice a big difference in how your PC operates and it will save you from having to invest in a new computer so soon.
Drivers are what link your connected devices to your computer, allowing them to function. If these are out of date it could mean trouble. With some operating systems like Windows 10, it will look for new drivers when you perform a system update. However, some can escape this process for a number of reasons. That's why it's essential to give them a once over on occasion to make sure everything is current before issues happen.
We're going to show you how to manually install drivers for some crucial devices today:
- Motherboards
- Network adaptor
- Display card
Once we've looked at how to update them manually, we'll show you how to do this a quicker and easier way - by using an effective third-party tool. This way, you could update all of these crucial drivers at once and save some time. Our CCleaner Professional tool will do this as well as clean and optimize your PC. If you're interested in how the manual process works, we're going to look at that now.
How to update motherboard drivers
The motherboard is central to how your PC functions because it's the crucial link between other hardware components like the processor and memory. If things start to go wrong with your motherboard you will definitely know about it! It can impact your whole system. It's best not to let things get to this state so let's run through how to search for any updates and install them.
Here's how to update motherboard drivers on Windows 10:
- Go to the taskbar and type "Device Manager" in the search box
- Choose "Device Manager"
- Expand the "Processors" category and find your motherboard
- Right-click on your motherboard, then choose "Update driver"
- Choose "Search automatically for updated driver software"
If Windows can't find a newer version you will need to head to the manufacturer's website and compare their driver details to your own. If there is a later release, follow the instructions on the manufacturer's page and download and install it from there. Don't forget, there's also an automated way which we'll show you at the end if you'd rather try that. It will save you loads of time and hassle, plus, it's safer than doing it yourself.
How to update network drivers
If you've found yourself unconnected and in a panic, don't worry, you can still update network drivers if you're offline and we'll show you how. In the future, it's a good idea to use a driver updater tool so you don't have to worry about your drivers becoming out of date. Of course, there are still plenty of other things that can go wrong with the internet and some you can't control but at least it's one less problem to worry about.
How to update your wifi driver on Windows 10:
- On your Windows 10 machine where you want to make the update, head to the search box on the taskbar and type in "Device Manager".
- Choose "Device Manager" from the options shown on the screen.
- Expand "Network Adaptors", then select the network adaptor for your computer.
- Then choose "Uninstall device", then "Delete the driver software for this device" check box, and "Uninstall".
- Now, restart your PC. On relaunch, Windows will automatically search for the network adaptor driver and install it if available.
- If it hasn't been able to, try to install a downloaded version.
- First, you'll need to download the latest network adaptor driver. If your PC can't get online you'll need to go to the PC manufacturer's website and download the latest driver onto a different computer and then load it onto a USB flash drive.
- Finally, install the version on the USB flash drive onto your Windows 10 PC.
How to update display drivers
Your display driver is what connects your video or graphics card to your computer. You might be experiencing flickering on your screen or other annoying visual issues and want to see if it's due to an outdated display driver.
If you want to check and update it manually on Windows 10, here's what to do:
- Head to the taskbar and type "Device Manager" in the search box
- Select "Device Manager"
- Expand the "Display Adaptors" category and find your graphics card
- Right-click on your graphics card, then choose "Properties"
- Go to the "Driver" tab and make a note of the version number of your graphics driver
- Now you want to compare the version against the manufacturer's most current driver which you'll find on their website
- If you're running an older version, download and install the latest version, following the instructions on the manufacturer's page
How to automatically update drivers quickly and safely
As we promised, there is a way you can update all of your drivers at once. It would take a long time to manually have to do it for every single one and it's probably not the best use of your time. That's why we created an updater tool to find any newer versions and update them for you, helping you to tame unruly hardware. We packaged this Driver Updater into our CCleaner Professional package which comes full of other cool features that will help optimize your computer.
You can test all of CCleaner's benefits and features for free for 14 days. You don't have to continue using it after and we don't ask for card details so you can literally walk away at the end of the trial. Why not see how many drivers it can help you update, and join our huge community of CCleaner Professional users who have found an easier and more efficient way to keep their PCs optimized?