Windows 10 drivers

Franicelcha

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Oct 21, 2010
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Hello folks

I need a bit of help here. It concerns Windows 10 drivers

Background
I built my first computer back in September 2014. As a matter of fact, that is the only one that I ever built. Was very nervous before I get the job started but it turned out pretty good. It is running today like a charm, just like when it was new. This PC was built with good quality parts with a Windows 7 Home Operating System. I have used the disk that came with the mobo to install the drivers back then. It is a general use PC, nothing fancy, used to surf the web, emails burning DVD’s, Excel, Word etc…No overclocking. Just a good general use PC used for everyday purposes, connected to a Brother printer HL-2170W (connected to my PC with cables, although I know that I could use it wirelessly).

Given that the January 2020 date (when Microsoft will stop support for Windows 7) is not that far away, I am giving thoughts to upgrading to Windows 10 64 bits within a few months from now.

I need help answering my questions about Windows 10 drivers to be installed because I am very confused. My motherboard is Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H.

I have gone to the Gigabyte website support section for my specific motherboard and checked the Windows 10 64 bit drivers that they have available for downloads. I just can’t believe I need to install all drivers shown there. I thought that Windows 10 would provide all the neceessary drivers within itself.

1. Could anyone tell me which of those drivers I need to install and those that I do not need to install ?
2. Are there any order in which these must be installed ? I have no problem installing Windows 10 but it is the drivers part that confuses me.
3. Also, I would appreciate your thoughts on what I need to think of in the planning phase prior to installing the software (Windows 10). I want to make sure all angles are covered to make the install painless.

Thank you
 
Solution


Sadly not all the drivers are combined into one neat one, you will most likely need them all. However, if you go to Gigabyte's website for your motherboard, go to support, select your OS of choice, and click the drop down menu that says Drivers (+7) download the 7 drivers listed they should all have there own drop down, download and install the latest ones once you get up an running on Win 10.
 
Windows will install drivers for all of those components automatically. However, they may not be the best drivers. And occasionally they simply do not work. For those components you will need to download them from the gigabyte site. You will probably want to download them all to a flash drive before upgrading, in the event the lan component is the faulty one.

Any component that doesn't outright malfunction after upgrading you can probably let Windows do the work for, however, I still recommend downloading drivers for any component you use (audio, chipset, lan ... vga if you use it) the first sata driver is only necessary for raids and the second for SSDs. You can safely ignore the utilities. And only play with the bios updates if you are having trouble booting.

Also order generally doesn't matter, but if any driver prompts a restart, do it before installing the next driver.
 


Because Gigabyte is a popular motherboard maker and Win 10 is new you shouldn't have issues with the drivers windows installs but they will be far from the newest ones and won't be the best optimized ones and you will be much better off downloading the 7 drivers from Gigabyte's website and just installing them for the best experience.
 
Solution