Updating Drivers: Let Windows or Use Mfr Updates?

Win 10 Pro 1909 (18363.752)

Things have gotten so complex and I'm confused about best practices. Should I let Windows manage all driver updates (via "push") or should I be updating drivers from the Mfr website ("pull")?

Example: I have an Acer tower. If I go to the Acer support site and punch in my computer's serial number, it lists a boatload of driver updates available - all from 2017. I bought the machine in April of 2019 so I don't know whether I need to install these, or just let Windows handle it. It *used* to be that the most reliable source for driver updates came from the manufacturer; I don't know if that's still true. To add to my confusion, the Acer site has the following statement: "After upgrading to Windows 10, if there are any drivers that haven't been installed, please run Windows Update to install the appropriate drivers." What does *that* mean?

Look at these partial screenshots:



AMT Driver? Do I need that? This is a home machine, not managed by IT, so is it even applicable? From the site, it appears that it's up to me to figure out. There are two bluetooth drivers... which one? Then there are chipset drivers, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da...

I would appreciate a little guidance on "best practices" on these sorts of updates so I don't go poking around and end up regretting what I do with these.

Thoughts?

Generally, the vendor will have the latest/best. Does the Acer support site have any options to scan your system and tell you if any need updating. That's what Dell Support will do. Takes almost all the guess work out of it. Looks like you're seeing a list of all that are available, not necessarily needing any update.

Silky said:

Win 10 Pro 1909 (18363.752)

Things have gotten so complex and I'm confused about best practices. Should I let Windows manage all driver updates (via "push") or should I be updating drivers from the Mfr website ("pull")?

Best practice ... if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

It *used* to be that the most reliable source for driver updates came from the manufacturer; I don't know if that's still true.

That certainly was the situation, Windows/Microsoft wasn't really into drivers when manufacturers were so willing to share.

To add to my confusion, the Acer site has the following statement: "After upgrading to Windows 10, if there are any drivers that haven't been installed, please run Windows Update to install the appropriate drivers." What does *that* mean?

The Microsoft installation files/program(s) for setting up/installing Windows can't possibly contain every driver for every piece if software. So during the installation process, Windows will install generic drivers so that the display works, the sound works, mouse and keyboard work, and so on. in some cases, these drivers are totally adequate, but in other cases, more detailed spec. drivers might be required for better performance (video/display drivers are a classic example).


And it is these drivers (often proprietary drivers accessible by MS/Windows) that will be added/updated during the subsequent Windows update after installation is complete.

Look at these partial screenshots:



AMT Driver? Do I need that? This is a home machine, not managed by IT, so is it even applicable? From the site, it appears that it's up to me to figure out. There are two bluetooth drivers... which one? Then there are chipset drivers, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da...

Best way to decide what's needed/wanted, is to go to Device Manager and look for anything that is marked as an error. Then seek a driver for that device.


And often the device is unidentifiable because of a non-specific generic identify name. In those cases, you could use driver download programs like Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) or Snail Driver to identify the drivers available, and very judiciously, choose the missing drivers (ONLY) to be installed.


Many a tear has been shed because a user thought there was a better driver for a piece of hardware that was working perfectly ....

Check Acer site for help with determining the need for any driver updates. You may be fine and don't know. 3rd party driver updaters or advisors are to be avoided if at all humanly possible. You will find 100's of members here that will attest they are snake oil, and can cause serious problems. Be very cautious with them. Very.

Go to the Vendor site. Go to the vendor forum site. These are your safest choices.

f14tomcat said:

Generally, the vendor will have the latest/best. Does the Acer support site have any options to scan your system and tell you if any need updating. That's what Dell Support will do. Takes almost all the guess work out of it. Looks like you're seeing a list of all that are available, not necessarily needing any update.

Yeah, well, it's Acer so my aspirations for it to work as you describe is what led me here to ask. You're right, it looks like available updates, not needed updates. They have you put your serial number in and then list the drivers page that I originally posted, so it's not a system scan. To add to the bullroar, they list several BIOS updates. So, I'm going to follow idgat's advice about "ain't broke" just to stay on the safe side.

- - - Updated - - -

idgat said:

Best practice ... if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

Glad you said that. That's my general conservative posture, but I needed to make sure. Thanks for reinforcing my paranoia.

The Microsoft installation files/program(s) for setting up/installing Windows can't possibly contain every driver for every piece if software. So during the installation process, Windows will install generic drivers so that the display works, the sound works, mouse and keyboard work, and so on. in some cases, these drivers are totally adequate, but in other cases, more detailed spec. drivers might be required for better performance (video/display drivers are a classic example).

Excellent explanation. Thank you.

And it is these drivers (often proprietary drivers accessible by MS/Windows) that will be added/updated during the subsequent Windows update after installation is complete.

Here I was feeling all set, then I read that sentence. Does that mean that the drivers listed on that ACER page are the ones Windows will update? Because I'm pretty sure I don't have those driver versions installed for each bit of hardware. I'm inclined to leave well enough alone, but if Windows will be looking for *those* drivers, I have to consider a strategy...

Best way to decide what's needed/wanted, is to go to Device Manager and look for anything that is marked as an error. Then seek a driver for that device.

And often the device is unidentifiable because of a non-specific generic identify name. In those cases, you could use driver download programs like Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) or Snail Driver to identify the drivers available, and very judiciously, choose the missing drivers (ONLY) to be installed.

My device manager is clean as a whistle. There are no errors or missing devices. So if I get you right, "don't go poking around unless there's an issue", is that right?

Many a tear has been shed because a user thought there was a better driver for a piece of hardware that was working perfectly ....

I "grok" that, which is why I came here to ask. Hell, I've been using computers since MS-DOS, and still have an air-gapped Win XP Pro and Win98 machine (don't ask); point is, yeah, I grew up with it being a dicey situation with drivers, I just didn't know how much Win10 had evolved as I only migrated from Win7 a year ago. So, well, yeah. I get it and will take the conservative approach.

- - - Updated - - -

f14tomcat said:

Check Acer site for help with determining the need for any driver updates. You may be fine and don't know. 3rd party driver updaters or advisors are to be avoided if at all humanly possible. You will find 100's of members here that will attest they are snake oil, and can cause serious problems. Be very cautious with them. Very.

Go to the Vendor site. Go to the vendor forum site. These are your safest choices.

Yeah, well, in my research on this site, I came across Major Geek's Driver Booster and ran it. It updated drivers. So I was kind of an idiot I guess. I had backed up the machine before doing so, but a "roll back" would be painful at this point. And again, the Acer site doesn't work like the Dell Site (or the Intel site) for a machine scan. You enter your SNID and you get that list of drivers I already posted. Sigh.

So far everything seems to be okay, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks a ton for this sage advice

---EDIT: Turns out that the Drive Booster will allow me to roll back to my previous drivers. What would you do? Rollback or keep things as long as there aren't any issues?

idgat said:

And often the device is unidentifiable because of a non-specific generic identify name

But the HardwareID will be correct and can be used to search for a driver. See my ditty - Search for drivers by HardwareID - TenForums

Denis

Try3 said:

But the HardwareID will be correct and can be used to search for a driver. See my ditty - Search for drivers by HardwareID - TenForums

Denis

Excellent. That's a great resource!

Silky said:

Does that mean that the drivers listed on that ACER page are the ones Windows will update? Because I'm pretty sure I don't have those driver versions installed for each bit of hardware. I'm inclined to leave well enough alone, but if Windows will be looking for *those* drivers, I have to consider a strategy...

Bit of yes and no, this and that. In some cases the generic Windows driver is good enough (base-grade hardware, nothing special required), but in some cases higher-spec hardware do require the proprietary driver(s). And in the latter case, Windows usually gets it right by deciding which hardware proprietary driver is best.

On occasion, the specific (non-generic) driver Windows uses may not be the latest driver available from computer/hardware brand website ... not the first time the latest driver has been incompatible with Win 10, forced upgrade by user >>> tears, then rollback. Which is why Windows didn't apply that latest driver in the last round of updates.

In x years of Windows 10, and tending to y number of computers, only once did I tempt fate and force a driver update/upgrade - that was a HP laptop with poor display, even though Device Manager said good enough. Downloaded the display drivers from HP, improved the display considerably. And I'm happy to say, unlike the experience of some others, the next Windows update didn't over-write those HP drivers back to Windows previous choice.

My device manager is clean as a whistle. There are no errors or missing devices. So if I get you right, "don't go poking around unless there's an issue", is that right?

I'd drink to that !

zbook said:

The best tested drivers are always displayed on the computer or motherboard manufacturer's websites.
The only place for BIOS upgrades are also the computer or motherboard manufacturer's websites.

Allow Windows to update Microsoft and non-Microsoft drivers.
If there are any specific problems they can be troubleshooted.

Dell, HP, and Lenovo make it relatively easy to find, download, and install drivers and BIOS.

Third party software can install unknown files.

Thanks for that. As far as I can tell, the Acer site is sh*t (pron: crapola). So I can't necessarily rely on anything they're telling me, as evidenced by me putting in my serial number, it finding my computer, and listing drivers that are apparently *available*, but not updates needed via a "machine scan".

I will allow windows to update the drivers, and I am not inclined to update BIOS unless there's a problem.

Thing is, this ALL started because of the following: I have two monitors, a Dell P2319H and an Acer H276HL. Device manager showed both as being PnP monitors. I updated the driver for the Dell using "update driver" from within device manager, and it found the new Dell driver and listed the monitor as such. Using the same method for the other monitor, windows reported I'm using the best driver. So... I went to the Acer site to find drivers - that site listed drivers up to Win 8, but nothing for Win 10, so I didn't do anything with it, deciding instead to live with "generic PnP monitor". Well, one thing led to another and I checked on drivers for my computer using it's SNID/SN and that's how I got here.

The takeaway? Acer isn't going to help me without risk, so I'm not doing anything. In hindsight, I guess it was foolish to try and solve the "generic PnP monitor" description when things are working fine.