As most of you know, drivers are programs that allow the operating system to communicate with the hardware components in your computer. By default, when you install Windows on your computer, the system will automatically download the appropriate drivers for your device to work properly. However, computer manufacturers also provide driver packages for each computer they manufacture.
Sometimes Microsoft drivers may serve the purpose, but sometimes the drivers provided by the manufacturer offer what Windows cannot provide. So the question here is can you suffice with the drivers automatically installed by Windows.. or should you download them officially from the manufacturer? Let’s discuss this in detail in the following paragraphs.
If you purchase a PC or laptop, it will likely come with manufacturer drivers pre-installed, or you may receive a CD that contains the installation files for all the necessary computer drivers. Recently, companies have started providing drivers for their devices online, and users can download them from their official website, as we explained in the article Official Windows 10 Laptop Drivers Download. In the case of assembling a PC, you will find the driver for each component on a CD included in the packaging box, or users can also download it from the internet.
All of this is to ensure the stable functioning of hardware components and to get the best performance. However, if you are using Windows, Microsoft does not force you to install drivers provided by the manufacturer. Windows includes the necessary drivers to ensure the components work, but they may not offer as much as the manufacturer’s drivers. Regardless, in some cases, such as when purchasing a mouse, keyboard, or monitor, where the manufacturer does not provide a custom driver, does it mean that this device has no value?
How does Microsoft provide the appropriate drivers for the computer?
Microsoft integrates a set of appropriate drivers for all computer components in the Windows system itself, but they are constantly updated to fit new devices. This means that if you install Windows 7 on a computer and there are some components that are not automatically detected by the system, it’s because the system does not have a suitable driver for that component, and you will need to manually download the driver from the manufacturer’s website. However, if you only replace Windows 7 with Windows 8 and install it on the same device, all components will work normally because Windows 8 comes with up-to-date drivers.
When reinstalling Windows from scratch on a new laptop, the system will try to detect components such as the graphics card, sound, network, Bluetooth, etc., and then install the closest compatible drivers for these components. This is also the case when connecting a new device to the computer. Note that these drivers are also involved in creating and testing by the manufacturers, not only Microsoft. Through the WHQL certification, manufacturers ensure that the drivers will work on all devices. Microsoft also releases necessary updates for these drivers through the Windows Update service and does not overlook them or leave drivers outdated for years.
What is the difference between them and manufacturer drivers?
The drivers installed by the Windows system automatically differ somewhat from those provided by the computer manufacturer. Windows drivers usually make the components work at low performance – especially the graphics card driver – and they are not advanced drivers. For example, if you try to install the Realtek sound driver provided by Windows, it will work well, but you won’t get the Realtek Audio Manager program for sound control. Similarly, with the graphics card driver, you won’t find the NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Catalyst program. These programs are designed by the manufacturer and are very useful. However, users don’t always need them.
The drivers provided by Microsoft are somewhat outdated and receive updates, but not continuously. Therefore, manufacturer drivers may be better. If you check the driver versions on the manufacturer’s website, you will find that they are much more up-to-date compared to Microsoft drivers. However, using an old driver is not usually a problem – in fact, updating drivers can sometimes cause issues. However, this is quite different when it comes to the graphics card driver; it should always be the latest to ensure the best experience in usage and gaming performance.
When should you get drivers from the manufacturer?
Now, let’s address the important question whether Windows drivers are sufficient or should you download them from the manufacturer? If you have installed Windows on your new computer or connected a new device to your computer and found that it is working correctly, you may not need to download and install manufacturer drivers in this case. Some device manufacturers sometimes advise against installing official drivers from the company if you are using a recent version of Windows, such as Windows 10, because Windows 10 already includes the necessary drivers to run the device. However, there are some cases where you should download drivers from the manufacturer.
For example, if you play video games on your computer frequently, you should use the graphics card driver (NVIDIA or AMD) provided by the manufacturer. This not only ensures that you get the best performance, but also provides tools to configure graphic settings. This leads us to the second reason as well: getting helper programs that are not installed on the computer until the official driver from the manufacturer is installed.
You need to install manufacturer drivers if you need to use the latest version. This is good in some rare cases where installing the latest version fixes device issues. Or if the device connected to the computer is not working, sometimes Windows cannot detect all devices and install them automatically, in which case you need to search for the official driver and download it from the company. Also, if you have an issue with Windows drivers, for example, if a device seems to not be working properly or is slow, you should get the custom driver from the manufacturer.
In the end, downloading drivers from the manufacturer will not be necessary most of the time. Updating drivers regularly makes the computer run faster, and it won’t slow down because you are using old drivers – except for the graphics card driver.
