can i locate and save the printer drivers and other drivers of wu

[jraju]

Hi, windows 7 automatically installs the required drivers for all the hardware and also installing drivers, when new usb devices such as printers are connected .
My query is , if suppose, i connect a printer, i get a alert in desk tray , that drivers are being installed and if i click, it i could see some of the drivers that it installs for the printers to work.
Can i locate the place and save the drivers separately so that i could install , just by clicking the exe.
are drivers are stored as executives or not
if not , how it is stored, can i execute it as a normal click exe
can i save the drivers of my printer
can i locate all the drivers place in my pc in windows 7
what is preconfigured folder,, i did not find any folders of this type.
please give solution

 

[Barman58]

I rarely use the drivers supplied via windows, these are normally just the basic drivers - enough to access the basic functions of the printer or device. these are cut down drivers written and supplied to Microsoft, by the hardware manufacturers

I always recommend that you go to the support website of the manufacturer and download the driver installers from there. these can be saved securely, locally on your system, (or on a Disk or USB device). Often the manufacturers will only support the hardware with drivers for a set time, Microsoft will often support the basic drivers for longer but of course advanced functions of the device will only work properly with the Full drivers. storing the drivers locally should mean you can reload Windows version that the drivers match when needed.

You may find that drivers will not work with later versions of Windows although Windows 7 drivers may sometimes work with current versions

There are methods to extract the basic drivers from the operating system but it makes more sense to go the the source - the manufacturer, for original and updated drivers

 

[iko22]

Hi,

you can manually install drivers with pnputil -a <driver_name>

and you can list all device drivers in the driver store with pnputil -e

but, like Barman58 says, it makes more sense to use the installer supplied by the manufacturer.

 

[jraju]

Hi, iko, please give me an example of your command.
I also know that vendors drivers are the ideal best update.
But , i could only store the basic deivers in a pendrive, i could start with the device.
In my system , network drivers are not installed automatically. I have to copy thedriver to the system to have the basic internet.
iko, will you please let me know, how to use your command

does the command work in system admin prompt ,, system 64 prompt
Some drivers are take much storage and unnecessary , i feel
for eg, when i connect a printer usb, it gives five drivers as installed and ready to use
how to give the name of the driver in command prompt

 

[Barman58]

One tip with installing network drivers, Ethernet works without any drivers and all the PCs and Routers I've seen in the last 30+Years have come fitted with at least one Ethernet port, and Ethernet cables are available cheaply - add one to your toolkit and you will have the option in the future

 

[iko22]

Hi, iko, please give me an example of your command.

It;s not exactly MY command - it is a Command Line Interface (CLI) command, that comes with Windows. However, when quoting the command and it's switches, I forgot to add that the command only works from a Administrator's Command Prompt.
If D:\download\driver.inf is the path and file name of your printer driver .inf file, then the syntax of using pnputil to integrate the driver into OS, is:
pnputil -a "D:\download\driver.inf"
this command will add driver.inf to the driver store. Change D:\download to the directory path on your pendrive. The "" double quotes used in the command are only really necessary, if the pathname or filename contain any spaces. Otherwise, the quotes can be omitted.
When you have finished, type pnputil -e to see an enumeration of all the device drivers in the driver store. You will get a list of records, like this format:
Published name : oem186.inf
Driver package provider : Intel
Class : Network adapters
Driver date and version : 08/01/2013 16.1.3.1
Signer name : Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

Some will be network adapters, others will be your printer driver. Use pnputil -e to check that your printer driver has been successfully integrated into the system.
You might find several printer drivers in the driver store. Check the Driver date and version and Published name. If the driver appears unnecessary to you, then make a note of the Published name, and use pnputil once more time to delete the obsolete driver. For example:
pnputil -e oem186.inf
will delete the 186th driver from the driver store.

That's all.

 

[jraju]

Hi, Iko, can i save the drivers from the stored folders of my pc.
Not only printer driver, but all drivers
where i could see the drivers of all the drivers
all all could be used or only certain drivers.
will they be in exe form to easily execute

Or windows dirver of hardware would only work in install stage
can i find my drivers in preconfigured folder
sometime , i see, getting drivers from preconfigured folders