Simple Question about downloading drivers

[Engineer]

When I go to the Windows Update site (I have XP) and the site tells me to download a new version of a driver that I currently have (i.e. agere pci soft modem driver) and I follw the instructions, where, later, do I find out what the updated driver's properties are, what it has fixed, corrected, etc.

Is this info stored somewhere on my system or do I have to go somewhere on line to find this out?

Thanks
Engineer

 

[dreamliner77]

It's in device manager

right click 'my computer'>properties>hardware

There you should find an entry for you modem right click and select 'driver' and/or 'properties'

 

[leedogg]

if its that nvidia driver, you probably dont want that. I dont get any drivers from windows update...

 

[dreamliner77]

if its that nvidia driver, you probably dont want that. I dont get any drivers from windows update...

I didn't think Nvidia made modems...

Reread the first post.

hehe.

 

[albybum]

Windows Update drivers are most often drivers written by microsoft or modified by Microsoft and not from the manufacturer. Quite often the Microsoft drivers are outdated. In some cases, like my Soyo Dragon KT400, Windows Update suggest drivers that do not even work with my motherboard.

My suggestion would to NEVER get drivers from Microsoft unless you are desperate. Go to the manufacturer's website or a repository like voodoofiles and get your hardware drivers from there.

To answer your question more directly, you can search the microsoft knowledgebase and see if they have any information on what their drivers have "fixed" but I do not believe they offer a detailed description of each update on Windows Update.

If it works, don't fix it. If you are happy with the stability and performance from that piece of hardware with your current drivers, I would not suggest downloading any new drivers.

 

[Lee]

Thought updates where to add functionality, enhance speed, correct bugs, make the drivers compatible with other windows updates etc......

I still use nvidia microsoft drivers from last July on my PC. The newest nvidia drivers for their site bugger up the icons on my desktop and cause a crash sometimes, so i am happy to use M$ driver updates. Horses for courses I suppose.

 

[LeeJend]

R E A D the driver update release info B E F O R E doing anything. If there isn't any update info don't use the driver!

Half the drivers you download will make your system or add in card run worse. Some will make it unusable.

All legitimate driver update sites say "Do not update drivers unless you are having a problem that the driver release info says it will fix". (Yes, I just implied Windows Update is not a legitimate driver update site. But then someone else already said that in one of the posts above.)

My recent justification for saying the above:
- Liteon DVD update December 24th - made drives incompatible with most DVD RW media.
- ATI Catalysts 3.5-3.9 AND 4.2 made HW2 run with major texture corruption or just plain crash at boot.
- Countless Nvidia Detonators between 41.09 and 53.something degraded texture quality.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.