This guide shows you how to manually update or install a driver in Windows Vista.
Manually Update or Install a Driver
- Open the Control Panel in the Start menu.
- Switch to Classic view by clicking Classic view in the left sidebar of the Control Panel.
- Open System.
- Click Device Manager in the left sidebar of the System window.
- Right click the device you want to install or update a driver and select Update Driver Software.
Windows Update
When you install or update a driver you can get the new driver from Microsoft through Windows Update or locally from a disk or other location. Let’s try Windows Update first.
- Click Search automatically for updated driver software in the Update Driver Software window.
- Windows will search for new or updated drivers on Windows Update. If it finds any it will automatically install them for you. If it doesn’t you’ll get an error like the one below.
Local
If Windows Vista can’t find drivers on Windows Update and you have the drivers on a disk or on the computer you can choose to browse to browse your computer for the drivers.
- Click Browse my computer for driver software in the Update Driver Software window.
- Browse to the location of the drivers and then click Next.
- If it finds the drivers Windows Vista will automatically install them for you.
Related Guides:
- Set Windows Update to Deliver Updates to More Programs and Services
- Configure Windows Driver Update Settings
- Roll Back a Driver in Windows Vista
- Stop 0xEA or THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER
- Stop 0xBE or ATTEMPTED_WRITE_TO_READONLY_MEMORY
