When system peripherals create a problem, the simplest workaround we come to know while troubleshooting those errors is to learn how to manually update drivers in windows 7, and that’s what we will be teaching you today!
System drivers are the set of instructions that helps your computer interact with the specific hardware associated with it. If drivers wouldn’t be there, your windows wouldn’t have any idea on how to deal with those hardware and your computer starts creating the problems.
When the manufacturers tweak the software associated with that particular hardware, the drivers need to get updated to its latest version available. Keeping the windows drivers up to date is a must for flawless and smooth system experiences.
If you have upgraded windows to the latest version, chances are your system audio has stopped working or the audio is not of that quality it used to be. If anything such happens, probably your sound drivers have got outdated and it’s an alarm that you need to update it.
Similarly, if windows upgradations, system format or any similar activity has caused you a problem in watching videos, playing games and doing other system tasks, probably it’s time for you to upgrade your windows drivers.
If you detect any such issues in your computer, learning How To Update Drivers windows 7 is the only option you are left with. This guide is dedicated to teaching you windows 7 driver updates including how to update graphics driver, driver update software and everything important.
How to Manually Update Drivers in Windows 7
There are more than one way that you can update your system drivers. You can do it by following the system updates, using the manufacturer’s software and manually, of course.
This guide is compiled to teaching you how to update drivers manually in windows 7 but we will give you a quick overview of other methods too. Also, all the steps mentioned are applicable in all the above versions of windows including windows 8, 8.1, windows vista and windows 10. So let’s get started.
Step 1. The process of updating the drivers starts with the device manager so the first step is to reach out to the device manager window.
To begin the process, click on the start menu and go to Control panel and click the Device Manager. See the screenshot below.
Alternatively, right-click My Computer and select Manage.
On doing that, Computer Management windows will open up. Now click Device Manager in the left pane.
Step 2. In the device manager window, a list of all the hardware attached to your computer is given. See the below screenshot to understand the options.
To update the driver for any hardware, double-click the hardware option and a hierarchy of the driver option will be loaded. Now double click the driver you want to update.
For instance, we want to update sound drivers for this system. Double-click the Sound, video, and game controllers and the list of audio drivers in your windows will load. Now double click driver option you want to update and another properties window for that driver will pop-up.
Have a look at the below screenshot to understand the options.
Step 3. Now go to the Driver tab and click the Update Driver button in order to update the drivers.
Step 4. On doing that, the Update Driver Software window will pop-up. The window looks like the below screen.
Alternatively, you can also reach out to this window by right-clicking the driver option and selecting Update Driver Software.
Step 5. In the Update Driver Software window, select the second option i.e. “Browse my computer for driver software” if you have the latest driver file downloaded on your computer.
Else, select the option Search automatically for updated driver software. When given this command, Windows will start searching for the latest driver updated for your windows on the web and you will see the following message.
Step 6. If there is an updated driver available, windows will start downloading it on your computer automatically and you will see a success message saying Windows has successfully updated your driver software. Just click the Close button and you are done.
So these are instructions for updating the drivers manually. By following these instructions you can update intel graphics driver update, sound driver, and every other driver except Nvidia driver update.
If you are using the Nvidia graphics card, here’s how to update the drivers to its latest version.
Step 1. The first step is to detect the graphics card model and OS type on your computer. Once both of them are found, you can update the Nvidia driver from its official website. For this, press windows+R keys, type in dxdiag in the Run window and press enter.
Step 2. In the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, see the OS type under System Information. See the screen below.
Now go to the Display tab and check for the graphics type of your windows next to the chip type.
Once yo have successfully found both of them, head over to the next step.
Step 3. Now go to the official website of Nvidia i.e. Nvidia.com and hover your cursor over Drivers. Fill all the details required and search for the latest driver available.
If there are any latest drivers available suiting your requirements, download it on your computer and run the installer file. The driver would be downloaded soon after.
So that’s all you need to know about Howto manually update drivers in Windows 7.
As promised above, it’s time to give you a quick overview of the other two methods to update drivers in the windows.
The first method by checking for the windows updates. Type in Windows Update in the search bar and press enter. You will see the following screen.
If there are updates available, click Install now and you are done. The third way you can do that is by going to the manufacturer’s website and updating the drivers and installing them. Or you can also do that by the software CD you get from the manufacturer.
That’s it for this tutorial. For any doubts or queries, you can drop us a comment below. And if you found the guide helpful, feel free to share it with your friends.
