Connection to DriversCloudCreate a DriversCloud.com accountReset your DriversCloud.com passwordAccount migration
Installing drivers
You've downloaded your drivers from DriversCloud, and now it's time to install them.
This tutorial will show you the different ways of installing them, because as you'll discover, not all publishers use the same techniques.
Nothing complicated, just follow the steps and advice provided.
Outline :
- Warnings and advice
- Installation using an executable (case 1)
- Installation using an executable (case 2)
- Installation using an executable (case 3)
- Installation using an executable (case 4)
- Installation without executable
- Conclusion
**********
Warnings and advice
Although installing/updating a driver is generally straightforward, the fact remains that this operation should not be taken lightly.
First and foremost, you need to CREATE A RESET POINT on your system, so that you can go back to the way things were, should you encounter a malfunction.
In some cases, you may have a dozen or more drivers to install/update. I recommend that you recreate a new restore point every 3-4 drivers installed, enabling you to return to this stage without having to start from the very beginning.
After installing a driver, and even if your computer doesn't ask you to do so, restart it, to ensure that the installed driver is properly taken into account, or even to detect a bug and isolate the driver at fault.
In this tutorial, I'll be presenting installations based on the files contained in the " DriversCloud_Install " folder, created automatically if you've used DriversCloud's automatic download feature. For the sake of efficiency and simplicity, I've moved this folder directly to the desktop. In your case, it will probably be created in your "Downloads" system folder.
Let's get started.
**********
Installation using an executable (case 1)
Once you've created your restore point, let's open the " DriversCloud_Install " => folder.
We can visually distinguish 2 types of file:
- Framed in blue, the "executable" type drivers, which are simply launched by double-clicking, recognizable by an icon that can have a variable shape, identical on my capture because they come from the same publisher (AMD).
- Framed in green, drivers placed in a compressed folder, here represented by a zipper because the Windows decompressor itself is the default program on this Windows. If you have installed your own compression/decompression software (Winrar, 7Zip, etc...), their logo will appear.
Note that compressed files may or may not contain an executable: we'll see about that later.
I'll start with the second executable, for the very good reason that its title includes the term "Chipset", linked to the motherboard and an essential component of your PC. So it's a good idea to start with it, as it can influence the rest of the driver updates.
Double-click on it and this window opens => I leave the three drivers pre-ticked.
I leave the 3 drivers pre-ticked and click on "Install".
I go through a progression phase, and the window at the end of the procedure appears => I close it, and click on "Install".
Close it, and restart the computer, even if you're not asked to do so.
That's the end of the presentation of case n°1 using an executable; nothing complicated, as you can see.
Let's move on to case 2.
**********
Installation using an executable (case 2)
Let's take a look at a case where the installation process is more complex. All you'll need is a little patience on your part.
So double-click on the first executable on my list, in this case a driver for my AMD graphics card.
A first window opens, and you validate =>
Then comes the decompression phase, and you wait =>
Then a more modern colored interface =>
Note the pre-ticked box circled in green, which I advise you to leave unchecked.
Click on the "Install" button and wait =>
Please note the warning circled in green: you'll need to be patient once the reboot is complete!
Once you're back on the desktop, after a few seconds or even tens of seconds, your screen may flicker or even turn black. Don't touch anything until all the operations have been completed in the background.
When this is over, you may get a message like this => Restart your PC one last time.
Restart your PC one last time to finalize everything.
Let's move on to case n° with an executable.
**********
Installation using an executable (case 3)
We're now going to look at compressed folders, which may contain an executable inside.
Right-click on the compressed folder, and in the context menu click on "Extract here" => "Extract here" => "Extract here" => "Extract here" => "Extract here" => "Extract here" => "Extract here".
A window appears in which you simply click on the "Extract" button, with decompression taking place directly in the folder containing the archive =>
Once the operation is complete, the decompressed folder appears in the list.
Open it and you'll find the first folder, which you can also open =>
And here we have an executable which we launch as we saw above.
Right, let's move on to the next case.
**********
Installation using an executable (case 4)
In this 4th case, it's similar to case n°3, so we unzip the folder and open the result, in this case a Realtek audio driver.
Except that here we find ourselves with a plethora of files, and we may wonder what to choose =>.
Using the scroll bar on the right, scroll down to find anything with the word "Application" in the "Type" column, drastically reducing the possibilities =>
The term "Setup" is used here to complete the search. In your case, it may have another name, such as "Install" or something similar.
Launch the installer =>
A new window appears: read carefully what I've framed in yellow =>
Clearly, we find ourselves in the same situation as when we installed the AMD graphics driver above.
A few screenshots that speak for themselves =>
That's it, we've covered all the different types of installation with an integrated installer.
But there are also cases where the famous installer doesn't exist, as we'll now see.
**********
Installation without an executable
From time to time, we find ourselves with just the "raw" drivers, without a little third-party software to insert them without having to rummage around in the depths of our system.
The process just takes a little longer (although...), but it's very easy to do in the end.
Once our archive has been decompressed, we open it =>.
And you're left with these files. Here there are only 3, but sometimes there can be many more if the driver package concerns several versions of Windows, but that's no problem at all => No installer, then.
No installer, then, so we'll proceed differently.
Open the "Device Manager", and as this is an Ethernet network card, look for the "Network Card" line and click on the little arrow to the left of it => The first line is for Bluetooth.
The first line concerns Bluetooth, the third the Wifi card and, ignoring the numerous "Wan", all that's left in our case is the "Realtek PCI FE Family Controller", which is indeed our Ethernet network card => We right-click on it.
Right-click on it, and select "Update driver" from the context menu =>
A window opens, in which we select the second choice =>
New window =>
Note the yellow circle around a pre-set search location ("documents"). We'll now tell the system where our driver is by clicking on the "Browse..." button, which opens the following window => As I mentioned in the previous section, we're going to browse for our driver.
As I said in the introduction, I've deliberately put the " DriversCloud_Install " folder on my Desktop. If you haven't specified anything, you'll have to go to the "Download" system folder.
So I click on "Desktop", and search in the list for my ad hoc folder, highlighting it with a single click (1), then clicking on the "OK" button (2) => I'm back on our previous window.
We return to our previous window, where we can see that the path has been modified. All that's left to do is click on "Next" => The installation phase begins.
The installation phase starts =>
And..... =>
Our driver has now been installed.
Just close and restart the computer to finalize.
**********
Conclusion
As you can see, there's nothing really complicated about installing drivers. All you need to do is :
1) Create a restore point beforehand, or intermediate points if there are a lot of drivers to install/update.
2) Read any recommendations that the publisher may have included in its interface.
3) Be patient, especially when the installation requires a reboot between its two phases.
As for the " DriversCloud_Install " folder, which contains the drivers now installed, you can get rid of it - it's normally useless now. You may want to save the important drivers, of which there are only 2: the Wifi driver and/or the Ethernet driver. Once these have been reinstalled, you can come back to DriversCloud to retrieve the others.