Driver updates?!

[MartinO]

Anyone got an idea how often Microsoft incorporates hardware driver updates in the Windows Update, or how that works in general? I noticed that for my graphics adapter (see specs) there have 2 driver updates been released by the manufacturer since the one that Windows Update provided.

 

[Night Hawk]

Microsoft doesn't incorporate hardware updates but places them in the "Optional" catagory. If you check for updates manually in the Control Panel or when going to the update site itself directly and selecting the custom option there.

The MS update site will always be behind the manufacturer's own support site until newer versions are uploaded there. Likewise 3rd party sites that carry MS updates will always lag a little behind going directly to the MS download center.

One thing to do first however before jumping on updates just because they are newer is to check to see if anyone is reporting any problems with the latest before simply rushing to download and install. Occasionally the latest may turn out to be a problem and why need to fix what isn't broken already?

 

[MartinO]

Thanks hawk, good answer. And thats exactly what I'll be doing, not jumping on the latest drivers right away since I am not experiencing any problem. If they happen to pop up in Windows Update I might go with it, just to clear the list.
Another reason why I was asking was that some time ago, when I got the latest driver from the manufacturer's website, Windows Update kept offering me an (older) driver, failing to recognizing the latest one installed. Which kinda bugged me since I had to manually "hide" this update in the list. But that was under XP anyway.

 

[gregrocker]

I never go looking for drivers unless missing or have performance problems, and accept Optional Windows Update drivers unless they cause problems then I roll them back.

 

[Night Hawk]

The same here with the ATI Catalysts. Having a few old 98 as well as XP compatible game titles and some older apps as well something was changed in the latest few releases that cause them to crash when going to start them up with no solution found. So I'm stuck with the last that does work for the time being.

I just went for the latest to see if that would make a differnce and uninstalled it to return to the previous that does work. Likewise when everything is set hold onto those updates if newer then seen on the original software disks for your hardwares for safe keeping in case you have to reinstall Windows for some other reason. That way you can get everything going well on any fresh install in case you haven't created any drive image to restore.

As far as the MS updates I will continue the latest already on for a tv tuner continuing to be one of the optional updates and simply leave it unchecked until just this month where that is no longer seen since the model card itself had been discontinued by the manufacturer. MS obviously then removed it from active support there.