A driver is a piece of code, or a file, that acts as a communication medium between the operating system and the hardware. Or as Microsoft puts it: Any piece of hardware, may it be the RAM or hard drive inside your PC, or an attached keyboard or printer, requires a driver to help it communicate with the OS. Without the driver, the hardware would not understand what the operating system is demanding from, and vice versa. Therefore, an up-to-date and error-free driver is essential for the smooth functioning of each hardware. Drivers are consistently being updated with new improvements through patches, which consequently change a driver’s associated version. This article discusses how you can check the versions of all the different drivers that are installed on your computer and why it is important to keep tabs on them.
What is Driver Version and Why is it Important
The driver version is a combination of numbers that signifies the release of the driver itself. A version can have decimals in it to separate major version changes from the minor ones. For example, if we were to release a new driver for the first time, we would proudly name it Itechtics 1.0.0. After making some minor improvements to the driver, we would then republish the driver and change its version number to Itechtics 1.0.1 (or Itechtics 1.0.3, depending upon the number of iterations made to the release). If we were to make a major update to the driver, we may as well name it Itechtics 2.0.0. As you may notice, the version number(s) started from the smaller ones and then made incremental changes depending upon how big the update is. Now that that’s understood, it is important to keep tabs on what version of the driver you are running on your computer. This will help differentiate between your driver and the latest one available. If your system has not updated the driver in some time, then there ought to be a significant version difference between the one being offered by the vendor and the one you have on your device. Therefore, cross-checking the driver versions for all your hardware is important, since the latest drivers include security patches that fix vulnerabilities that can be exploited through attacks and other performance improvements for you to benefit from. Let us now move on to show you how you can check the driver version for the different components on your PC.
Check Installed Driver Version using Device Manager Console
One way to check the version of the installed drivers on your computer is through the Device Manager – a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to manage your system’s hardware. Note that using this method, you can only get the version of one component driver at a time. If you want to know the versions of all the installed drivers, continue to the next section of this post. You can now cross-check the manufacturer’s website for the latest available drivers. If a newer one is available, you can update it using the guide given further down this post. From the Properties window in step 3 above, you can also find other useful information, such as the name of the manufacturer, the date the driver was installed on, etc.
Check Installed Driver Version using PowerShell
Another method to check the version of the installed drivers is through Windows PowerShell. You can get the versions of all the drivers installed on your PC for all the hardware with just one command. To obtain the driver version, launch Windows PowerShell with administrative privileges and then paste the following command: This command will display all of the drivers installed on your computer, as in the picture below:PowerShell command to get all driver versions This is a quick way to get information on the current drivers installed all at once! Now that you have the information needed regarding the current drivers installed, how would you know when an update is required?
When Does a Driver Need to be Updated
It is not always necessary to update a driver. Your drivers are typically updated automatically by Windows Update. Nevertheless, there is no benchmark that will determine whether a driver needs to be updated or not. In most cases, a driver needs to be updated if the associated hardware becomes glitchy. For example, the network driver may need to be updated if you are experiencing weak signals while the other devices around you are not. Another indicator for the driver update requirement is the date it was installed. Again, there is no time frame during which a driver should be updated, as all manufacturers release drivers for different components after different durations. However, we suggest that you update the driver manually (guide given below) if it is older than 1 year. You can check the date of installation of the driver from the Properties window of the hardware, as discussed above in the section for “Checking installed driver version using Device Manager console.”Driver installation date
How to Reinstall a Driver
It may be possible that you are already running the latest version of the driver, yet the hardware could be glitchy. In such scenarios, it may be possible that the driver did not install correctly, or has been corrupted. You can then try reinstalling the driver using the following steps: Your associated driver will now be reinstalled. Check to see if the issue you were facing has been resolved (if any).
How to Update Driver Automatically
You can try to update your driver automatically in Windows. The process uses Windows Update to automatically search for any updates for the associated driver and then install them if found. Here’s how to automatically update a driver in Windows:
How to Update Driver Manually
You can also manually update the driver if a newer version is available than your already-installed one. However, this method requires that you download the correct driver for the hardware before performing the steps given below. We suggest that you visit the manufacturer’s website and download the driver. Once done, follow the steps below to install it:
How to Roll Back Driver
If a driver has been updated, Windows still keeps the previous version of the driver just in case. This will be made available in case you decide to roll back to it at a later time. You may require to go back to the previous version of the driver if you find that the newer one is having issues, or is just not compatible with your setup. That said, Windows only keeps the last installed version of the driver and discards the rest. You can roll back to the latest version through the following steps: The window will now close. Give your system a few seconds for the driver to successfully rollback. Note that you will not be prompted whether the driver has rolled back or not. You can confirm this by checking that the Roll Back Driver button has been greyed out in the Properties window. Proceed to close the Properties window and the Device Manager console.
Final Thoughts
As you may have already understood, healthy drivers are very important for a device to run smoothly. Thus, keeping an eye out for a new driver version is equally significant. Although Windows updates most drivers automatically, we recommend that you occasionally check for updated drivers manually as well, just to make sure. Usually, the latest drivers are pre-checked by the vendor and are mostly error-free. If there are any anomalies discovered, they are usually fixed in a later update. Also see:
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