Windows 8 : Managing drivers (part 5) - Using Device Manager - Update Driver, Roll Back Driver, Displaying hidden devices

Update Driver

You learned that a first troubleshooting step is often ensuring that a device’s driver files are the most current ones available. Here’s how you update a driver:

1. On the Driver tab, tap or click Update Driver.

2. Decide how the driver should be updated and select one of the following options:

   • Search Automatically For Updated Driver Software Selecting this option instructs Windows to search both your local computer and the Internet for new drivers.

   • Browse My Computer For Driver Software If you’ve manually downloaded an updated driver for a hardware device, choose this option to direct Windows to the download location and install the updated driver software.

3. When you complete these steps, the new driver is installed, and the version number is updated.

DRIVER INSTALLATION PACKAGES

For some hardware, it might be necessary to use Driver Manager to install updated drivers. However, for many hardware devices, hardware vendors provide installation packages that make the driver update process a bit easier. This is especially true for graphics cards vendors such as Nvidia and BFG, who release new update packages on a regular basis. For these kinds of hardware, when you download the update package from the vendor and run the installation package, the drivers are also updated.

Roll Back Driver

As is the case with any software package, bad code or security flaws can occasionally be introduced in drivers that create system instability or that compromise system security. In these cases, you might find it necessary to revert to an earlier driver that worked.

This is the reason that the driver rollback feature exists in Device Manager on the Driver tab. If it is necessary to revert to a previous driver, Windows warns you (Figure 13) that you might experience problems, including reduced security and functionality. It’s recommended that you roll back a driver only if you’re experiencing a driver-related hardware issue.

Figure 13. Roll back a driver only if necessary

Displaying hidden devices

In some troubleshooting scenarios, you might want to display devices that the system has marked as hidden in the registry. By default, Device Manager does not display information for hidden devices.

To enable Device Manager to display devices that are marked as hidden:

1. Open Device Manager.

2. From the View menu, choose Show Hidden Devices.

In Figure 14, note that the Device Manager view now includes a number of additional nodes and devices that did not appear before. Although it might be difficult to see, the hidden devices are displayed in a dimmed font in the Device Manager view.

Figure 14. Hidden devices shown slightly dimmed

After you are able to view hidden devices, you can manage them as you would any other device. When you select a hidden device, you can see why the device is hidden. In Figure 15, note that the device is hidden from Device Manager because it’s not currently connected to the computer. This is often the case for USB mass storage devices, which include portable thumb drives.

Figure 15. A device not currently connected to the computer