1

When you install Windows 7, your install source may not have drivers for your networking hardware.

This means that the install process skips the step where it goes online and looks for all the "best" drivers for your hardware. After the install was done, I manually added the networking driver, and I was able to use windows update and download all the updates I could find.

After this, I still had to manually go back into device manager and tell Windows 7 to update drivers for a few devices by using the Internet connection. The point of the question is that I had to 1) Know which devices could be updated (or guess) and 2) Try to update them one at a time

Is there a way to tell Windows 7 "OK, there is an internet connection now, go back and look for the latest drivers for ALL devices, without my having to click-through each and every one in the device manager?"

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    You kind of answered your own question; running Windows Update is how to do that. Keep in mind Microsoft doesn't always have every driver. There will be times you will have to do it manually, depending on the driver.
    – CharlieRB
    Commented Apr 12, 2013 at 23:35
  • Quoting another user 'Journeyman Geek': "You might want to re-cast this as a question then answer it yourself. SU isn't a forum (see our faq for the official explaination) and its perfectly fine to self answer - but not to post a question as an answer."
    – user201262
    Commented Apr 13, 2013 at 4:25
  • I thought I was clear enough that the point of the question was to get Windows to try to get the latest driver for everything without having to do multiple clicks for every single device in the Device Manager - but fair enough, there is always room for improvement. I may have come across an answer where using Sysprep and putting the computer in 'Factory' mode can cause it to re-do 'PnP Device Enumeration' but I haven't gotten a full explanation of what this means. If nobody else can provide an answer, I will post one when I have done sufficient research.
    – user1445967
    Commented Apr 14, 2013 at 2:23

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .