To Update Drivers or Not To Update Drivers...That is the Question.

marzipan said:

Hello again folks!

So, I have now successfully switched my family's computers over to Windows 10 and everything went very smoothly. After installation, I updated the computers through Windows Update and checked the Device Manager to see if there were any exclamation marks (there weren't), made sure sound and display and printers all worked, etc. and went along my merry way.

Now, tonight I'm looking at my own laptop and something dawned on me - I did not check with any manufacturer's websites for updated drivers for anything during this process - not once.

When I used to do Windows 7 clean installs, I always checked (in my case) Dell's website afterwards for chipset, network, display drivers and installed them, but now I don't honestly know if I should because Windows 10 is not supported on my laptop. The latest drivers listed on the Dell website are for Windows 8 (which I never installed), but there are the original drivers for Windows 7.

Should I download and install these old drivers from Dell or should I just continue on with the drivers that were installed with Windows 10 till things start acting up? I am a firm believer of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and right now, everything is running perfectly as-is...but I am NOT an expert at this stuff. You folks, on the other hand, ARE the experts...so what would you recommend I do?

Thanks again everyone - I am so very grateful for all your help!

The only drivers I would worry about if Device Manager is happy, and everything works, are the chipset drivers.
You should keep them at least somewhat up-to-date.

You can find them "stickied" here...
https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/

If your old (unsupported) laptop
a. shows no yellow triangles in Device Manager
b. is running happily

- there's nothing to worry about.

Some laptops rely on specific utility software from the manufacturer e.g. for fingerprint readers, special keys, illuminated keyboards etc etc... if anything like that applies and is not working, that's something to review on the manufacturer's site.

Otherwise best left alone.

And do not use driver updater tools arbitrarily! Only if nothing else helps with a missing or wrong driver.

Encourage them all to use 3rd party disk imaging regularly and routinely... e.g. Macrium Reflect (free/paid) + large encough external storage for image file sets.

Check up on their backup practices.. ask them what data they'd most fear losin - what would they do if their system disk failed...

and of course end of sevice for Win 10 is Oct 2025 for Home/Pro...