He specializes in Windows software, how-to articles, and PC peripherals. If you’re mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you’re a mobile user who needs easy access to the complete Microsoft ecosystem, including SkyDrive, Windows 8 is definitely a good fit. For features specific to your graphics card model—GPU monitors, overclocking utilities, and so on—check the website of your card’s manufacturer.

Only Trust A Driver Updater From A Microsoft Gold Application Development Partner

Drivers are programs that let your operating system properly communicate with the peripherals. Alex Castle is a freelance tech writer based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ninite works on Windows 10, 8.x, 7, and equivalent Server versions. You’ll need to upgrade your Windows version to continue using Ninite.

• Microsoft continued to promote the tool through 1999 and the first half of 2000.
• As the service has evolved over the years, so have its client software.
• Automatic Updates is the successor of the Critical Update Notification Utility.
• For a decade, the primary client component of the service was the Windows Update web app that could only be run inside Internet Explorer.

A Disk Cleanup window will open again with a list of all files you can delete to free up the C drive for some extra space. Check the checkbox of “Device Driver Packages”, and press OK. Click on “Clean Up System Files” and select system drives again when asked. Normally updating the BIOS is reserved for when there is a problem. But updating the BIOS on motherboards for Ryzen processors is necessary for system stability and compatibility.

Right click on the driver you want to upgrade and click Update Driver to open the Hardware Update Wizard. Right click on the outdated driver and choose Update Driver Software. Although it’s not entirely necessary to mention since it’s not a functionality feature, you might like to know that you can also change the Driver Booster skin. There’s a black and white skin you can quickly select from the program’s menu, but you can also pick any color you want from the color panel. Drivers in Windows are vital to the proper operation of hardware.

When it comes to graphics cards the most important thing to have is the latest driver from AMD or Nvidia, which controls the actual graphics performance of the cards. Driver Store Explorer is a free tool which lets you see what’s inside the DriverStore in a ‘human readable’ way. You can list all the driver packages stored in the current driver store, add/delete a driver, etc. Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy BypassNext, run the ps1 script downloaded from the above link.

Without them, the operating system won’t know how to use the hardware you plug in, like your microphone, keyboard, webcam, etc. Skip Navigation Your browser either does not have JavaScript enabled or does not appear to support enough features of JavaScript to be used well on this site. (+info)PurposeSoftonic will use your email address to send regular newsletters that may be customised based on your location, download history and navigation. A yellow exclamation point usually indicates the need for an update.