Many people associate the word "storage" exclusively with information, but experts and more advanced users know that Windows also stores drivers and actively uses them as needed.
Who are drivers and when might they be needed?
A driver is a so-called connecting bridge between the hardware and the system of the computing device. He always assists in indicating the OS, what is connected to the computer and how it works. Driver acts as a program with files that interact with devices. After Windows is installed on a new computer, the operating system does not immediately know anything about external devices and drivers are required to "get acquainted".
Usually, new versions of the OS immediately have "firewood" for working with the following programs:
- bluetooth
- sound
- home network
- video
- additional devices
Video, like sound with standard settings, does not provide an opportunity to enjoy all the advantages of connected devices without installing "firewood".
Where are any Drivers stored on a Windows 7 system?
In the seventh version of Windows, the key installed drivers are located in a folder called "Drivers". It is located on the drive: C / windows / system32. Even if the folder is found, you will not need to copy it for further reinstallation. The best practice is to use Device Manager.
For example, you need to find out where the sound driver is located. To do this, you need to expand the line for sound video and game devices and select the sound driver by clicking on properties. When the window opens, you should go to the tab with information, select the option called "device description". There will be information about the location of the required driver and other data.
You can also use the official website of your computer manufacturer. There are the latest versions of the released "firewood" and numerous programs that provide the ability to make a quick update, or a copy in reserve. Experts do not recommend using this method for inexperienced users (to avoid possible system errors).
Having studied the information and clearly following the instructions, you can correctly find the drivers and perform the necessary manipulations with them.
What are drivers and why are they needed?
The driver is a kind of bridge between the system and the hardware of the computer. With its help, the Operating System indicates everything that is connected to the computer and how to interact with it.
A driver is not a physical device and cannot be "touched". This is a program containing files with which the system can interact with devices.
When you are just, the OS does not know anything about the external devices of the computer, so it needs to be "introduced" to them through drivers.
Some versions of Windows already have preinstalled drivers. Usually this is the minimum - for working with sound, video, network, bluetooth, etc.
This is not to say that without drivers and immediately after installing the OS, you will not be able to work with your computer. You will have sound and video, but these are standard settings and you will not be able to take full advantage of all the "charms" of the connected devices until you install their drivers.
This applies not only to the new OS on the computer, drivers need to be installed for other new devices that you will connect in the future.
Drivers are needed for almost all equipment that is or will be connected to the computer: a sound card, mice and keyboards with additional keys, various joysticks, etc.
For example, if you have not installed drivers for your fancy sound card, you will not be able to fully enjoy the sound from the speakers. Or, without the installed drivers for the video card, you will have problems with the graphics. Well, without drivers for printers, copiers, scanners, web cameras, etc. they will not work and the system will not see them, although they will be connected.
Yes, you may see in the lower right corner that the system has found, for example, a printer, but when you try to print something, nothing will work.
Where are the drivers located and located in windows?
You can find the driver in (system_drive_letter): \ WINDOWS \ SYSTM32 \... They often do not have only one file. They are scattered throughout this folder and have extensions: * .sys, * .dll, * .vxt, * .drv, and * .inf (containing installation information).
How do I know which drivers are installed?
We go to the Device Manager. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties... Next, we look for it there.
Or you can use the program.
How do I install the driver?
Usually, complete with a device or a computer, there are always discs on which there are installation drivers... In this case, you just need to start the disc and follow the instructions.
If the automatic installation does not start, then you need to Open the disc with My computer, find and run the setup.exe file there.
If there are no disks, then you need to search on the Internet, for example, on such well-known sites as and.
When a new device is connected, there will be a yellow question mark in front of it in Device Manager. In this case, right-click on this line and specify the path to the disk or file with drivers.
How to roll back and remove a driver.
In the Device Manager, right-click on the desired line and select Properties. The following is indicated on the screen:
Downloading drivers for windows 7 sometimes becomes necessary. Many users, reinstalling the old operating system on windows 7, are faced with the fact that some devices (printers, scanners, etc.) have stopped working, and in order to restore their functionality, you need to download drivers for windows 7. Let's look at what a driver is and what is it for?
A driver is a program that allows a computer to communicate correctly with other devices. It turns out that for any device, be it a mouse or a printer, a driver is needed, otherwise the computer simply will not understand how to work with it.
There are three ways to install drivers on your computer:
- installation using the standard Windows Update Center;
- Installation using the device manufacturer's CDs;
- installation of drivers downloaded by yourself.
Method one
Let's consider how to find and download official drivers for windows 7 using standard tools. For example, you have connected a new device to your computer and want to know if it requires a driver. To do this, type "Device Manager" in the Windows search bar. Open it up.
If you need to install a driver for a device, then in the list that opens it will be in the "Other devices" line and have a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to it.
In order to install the driver, right-click on the device and select the line "Update driver". The window that appears will offer two options - "Automatic search" or "Search on this computer".
At the moment we are interested in automatic driver search. When you select this item, the operating system will try to find drivers for windows 7 on Microsoft servers.
For standard, not very new and widespread devices, as a rule, drivers are found, and a message appears on the screen stating that the drivers are installed. All that remains is to click OK.
In some cases, you will need to restart your computer. A message about this will appear on the screen.
Method two
As a rule, manufacturers of all kinds of printers, scanners and MFPs supply, along with the equipment, CDs with software and drivers.
In order to install such drivers, you must:
- Read the instructions. They can be both in printed form and in electronic form - on the same CD.
- Run the installation file, after which the application will start and further installation will be carried out according to the instructions.
If the CD does not contain drivers for your operating system, then you need to download new drivers for windows 7.
Method three
If for some reason there are no drivers on your devices, and Windows cannot automatically install them and the CDs are lost, then there is a way out - download the drivers to the windows 7 computer from the official website.
The procedure is as follows:
- Go to the official website of the device manufacturer.
- Find your device through the search (you will need to specify the name and model).
- Select the Windows 7 operating system.
- Select the bitness of the operating system (x86, x64).
- Download the installer file.
Further installation will repeat the installation method, similar to the installation from CD.
Let's consider a special case of installation. If you downloaded the driver, unpacked the archive and did not find any startup file there, but only files with the * .inf extension. These drivers will have to be installed manually.
To do this, open the "Task Manager", find your hardware in the list of devices. Open the menu with the right mouse button and select "Update driver".
The installation should begin. At the end of which the device will be installed and ready for use. You may need to restart your computer.
Driver search
Searching for drivers on the Internet is not difficult, but at the same time it is very dangerous.
Recently, the Internet has been flooded with virus software. Scammers disguise it as all sorts of useful programs and drivers.
Therefore, by entering in the search engine lines like: download free drivers for windows 7 maximum. Be careful, download drivers only from the official websites of device manufacturers.
Never install drivers that do not match your operating system. Even if the device does work (which is unlikely), then systematic errors and system failures are guaranteed to you.
You cannot install drivers from a 32-bit system for 64-bit windows 7. To find a driver for a 64-bit system, type in any search engine: download drivers for windows 7 x64 for free and among the links select the link to the website of your device manufacturer. Then download and install the driver using one of the methods described above.
How to set up sound on a Windows 7 computer, read. For detailed instructions on setting up headphones on a Windows 7 device, see this article.
Conclusion
There is another way to install a driver for windows 7 for free without registration - to use the collections of drivers. Usually the drivers are updated there regularly and are a kind of alternative to servers with drivers from Microsoft.
Apparently, there is no need to say that most users know that for the correct operation of absolutely everything installed on a computer, hardware in the form of "hardware" components and some virtual devices, you need to have special software called drivers. However, quite often there are questions about, for example, where the printer driver is located in Windows 7 (as well as in other operating systems of this family) or some other device connected to the system, when the control software needs to be integrated into the system manually. Let's try to find out, taking into account some of the nuances associated with installing and updating such software components.
Where is the driver folder in Windows 7 and other systems installed?
On all kinds of forums on the Internet, questions related to determining the exact location of the driver of a particular device can be found quite often.
Some users claim that the main directory is the System32 directory in the root folder of the system, while others believe that the storage location for the control software is the drivers directory under System32 or the DriverStore folder. Who is right? Both are right, since, depending on the type of the driver itself (SYS, VXD, DRV, etc.), the location of the files may change.
How do I determine the exact location of the driver?
Now let's try to find out where the drivers are located in Windows 7 by determining their exact location on the disk in the system partition. To do this, it is completely unnecessary to "dig" manually the specified folders. In addition, by searching for the device name, you are unlikely to find the corresponding driver.
The easiest way is to use the standard "Device Manager", select the desired device, go to the properties item through the PCM menu and press the information button on the driver tab. After that, a special window will be displayed, which will show all the absolute (full) paths to the directory in which they are located.
Where are the drivers in Windows 7 for updating?
However, knowing the exact location of the control software is not enough to update it. Many users rely solely on the tools of the operating system itself when trying to install updates. In general, it is true. However, in this situation it should be remembered that when specifying the search for the required driver, Windows first of all refers to scanning the already installed components.
If the search for updated drivers on the network (Internet) is set, the appeal is made only to the databases of the Microsoft corporation, and the drivers are installed, either digitally signed by the corporation, or software from those manufacturers for which support is declared. In this situation, it is better to use automated applications. But where are the drivers in Windows 7 that can be updated? Unfortunately, they are not in the system. But the corresponding programs refer exclusively to the Internet sites of equipment manufacturers and developers of such software, after which they install updated components without user intervention.
Where are the drivers loaded when manually downloaded?
Finally, let's take a look at where the drivers are located in Windows 7 for cases where the user found and downloaded them himself. Usually, in browsers that are installed in all recent versions of Windows, the folder for saving downloads by default is assigned to the Downloads directory, and the presence of such folders is provided for all accounts registered in the system. If the browser is always prompted to save downloadable content, you can specify the folder yourself. Typically, EXE or INF files are available for download.
In the first case, the driver and accompanying software are installed by launching the applet on behalf of the administrator, in the second - through the PCM menu with the choice of the installation item. If the system reports that this type of action is not supported, the update can be done through the "Device Manager", indicating with the browse button where the INF file was saved.
Hello, friends!
Finding and installing drivers is a real headache for many novice PC users.
In this article, we will look at a few examples of where, and how, to look for drivers for your computer or laptop.
Most often, the problem with finding drivers occurs after reinstalling the Windows operating system. How to reinstall Windows using a disk, I wrote in this, installing Windows from a USB flash drive
How do I know for which devices I need to install drivers? To do this, right-click (pkm) on the computer icon → select the properties tab → Device Manager.
In this example, all drivers are installed correctly and work correctly. If one of the points shows question mark, which means for this device we need a driver search.
Usually, when buying a laptop or computer in assembly, a disc with the necessary drivers and utilities is attached to them. One disk with all drivers is supplied with the laptop, for the computer separately; usually these are drivers for a chipset, video card, sound card driver, lan..idr. Everything is simple here, install the disk and start the installation of the necessary drivers.
Before looking for device drivers for your system, I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the five iron ones. If there is no driver disk, use method 2.
Downloading drivers from the manufacturer's official website
Let's take a look at the Asus K42f laptop as an example. Go to the official Asus website and search for this model. Select the tab → download and indicate your operating system (you can find out the system by going to → My Computer → (pkm) → Properties).
We are looking for all the necessary drivers. The most important drivers are Chipset, Sound, VGA, LAN (network), etc. If this method does not help, use the next, third method.
Driver search by device code.
Let's go back to the device manager. Computer → pcm → Properties. Let's say we don't have an audio controller driver .. see the picture.
Click on it pkm and select item → properties. In the open window, select the "Information" tab, and in the drop-down menu, select → " Equipment ID"(In Windows XP" Device Instance ID»).
An example of such code VEN_8086 & DEV_0046... Select it with the left key and copy it by pressing the key combination Ctrl + C... Now go to the site www.devid.info In the search field, insert ( Ctrl + V) copied code.
Click "OK", after which a list of drivers for this device will appear → download and install. It did not work → we use the 4th method.
