Identifying if Your PC Drivers Need Updates! Is there a Way?

You might have heard tech experts saying, that most PC problems can be resolved easily if the drivers are up to date. Seems easy right?

There is a catch!

Whenever you connect a component for the first time (for most plug-and-play devices) the drivers are automatically installed. This means the devices will work properly in the beginning. However, when a new driver update is released or the device drivers get outdated there is no warning until the PC has encountered an error stating an issue with the connected device.

So, should you always wait for an error to appear to update your device? Or is there a way to identify if drivers need updates? 

Well, there has to be. In this blog, let’s answer users’ most common yet significant question: how to identify if drivers need updates?

Why Is It Important to Keep Your PC Drivers Updated?

Drivers are the fundamental communication channel between connected components and devices with the operating system. It is drivers’ job to ensure that every operation is carried out perfectly.

To simplify, every command you give your operating system or every process you run on your PC requires the participation of external components. For instance, to run a graphics-oriented game, you need GPU support. Now, a GPU is hardware connected to your PC. You need to establish a mediator between the hardware and the OS to communicate with it via your operating system. A driver plays the role of the mediator. 

This implies that to keep running all the processes smoothly on your PC, you need proper drivers. If these drivers are not up to date or incompatible with the device, no process can be carried out smoothly. 

Forget running your favorite games smoothly if the graphics driver is outdated. No more smooth vocals for your songs if the sound card drivers are corrupt. That’s just how crucial updating drivers is!

How are Driver Updates Installed on a Windows PC?

The way updates work on Windows is quite outdated. To update a driver on Windows, you have to – 

Step 1 – Go to the Device Manager on your PC. You can use the devmgmt.msc or search for the Device Manager in the start menu. 

Step 2 – In the Device Manager, you have to manually go through all the drivers, right-click them, and click the Update driver option.

Step 3 – This brings up the driver update wizard, you select the first option, and the entire process of fetching and installing an update begins. Remember that the update wizard must be run individually for all the drivers on your PC. Which means it might take you 10s hours to finish updates manually. 

The lengthy process is also why users ignore driver updates and end up struggling with errors on their PC. 

So What’s the Solution?

The concept of driver updater tools was introduced to help users overcome the limitations of the outdated Windows method. Currently, the best automatic driver updater tool is Advanced Driver Updater. Here’s how it works – 

Step 1 – Download the tool from the link below. 

Step 2 – Install the tool using the downloaded setup file. Run it once the installation finishes. 

Step 3 – The Start Scan Now option is on the tool’s home screen. 

Step 4 – Click on the option to start the scan. Let the scan run, as it will help you fetch the status of all the drivers on your PC.

Step 5 – Once you know about the outdated drivers, click the Update All option to finish the updates. 

See how easy it was compared to the in-built feature of Windows? That is not even the best part of using the Advanced Driver Updater. The tool has a dedicated scheduled scanner that automatically runs for a set duration (decided by the user) to check for drivers. 

If any driver has recent updates, the tool will update it before you encounter an error. Now that’s interesting!

The Million Dollar Question: Is there a Way to Identify Outdated Drivers?

Now that you understand the whole process, let’s get to the much-awaited question, how to identify if drivers are outdated? 

And the answer is both Yes & No. 

Yes, because Advanced Driver Updater has a built-in scan scheduler that runs on a set interval to detect drivers that need to be updated. It is a powerful feature that makes it the most helpful tool.  

And, No, because there is no inbuilt method in Windows you can use to identify if drivers need updates unless you face an error or issue while using a device.

The choice now is in your hands! Choosing Advanced Driver Updater is the best way to handle all the driver updates instead of spending too much time manually looking for them. The added scheduled scan functionality makes the entire process error-proof, saving you big-time trouble!

With that, we have reached the end of this post. Updating your PC drivers can be both easy and tough, depending on the approach you opt for. 

So, choose wisely!

Recommended :

10 Things You Wish You Knew Before Updating Device Driver
5 Easy Ways to Backup & Restore Your PC Drivers