How to Update Drivers the Right Way on Mac, PC, Linux (2026)

Updating drivers the right way comes down to three things: take the driver from an official source, write down what you have installed today, and keep a way back to it. On Windows that means your laptop maker’s support page or Windows Update, on macOS it means Apple Software Update, and on Linux it usually means updating the kernel or picking a recommended driver from the Additional Drivers tab. None of it takes long once you know which device you are actually changing. Scopes covered here: Windows 11 and Windows 10, macOS, and Ubuntu or another Debian-based Linux. Last updated October 2026.

One more thing before the steps, because it comes up more than any other question: you do not need a driver updater tool. Software that scans your machine and offers to install a list of drivers it found will happily install something that was not asked for, and community reports of it removing hardware from Device Manager are common. Windows Update, your manufacturer’s support page, and the component vendor’s own app already cover everything worth having.

What You Need

Gather these before you change anything. Five minutes of preparation is what separates an update you can undo from one that leaves you reinstalling Windows.

• Your exact model and serial number. Not the marketing name on the box, the model string the support page needs. On Windows, press Win and R, type msinfo32, and read System Model under System Summary. On a Mac, click the Apple menu, then About This Mac. On Linux, run sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name.
• Your operating system version, edition and architecture. On Windows it is the Edition, Version and System Type fields in System Information. A machine that says ARM64-based PC needs ARM64 drivers, and mixing that up is one of the most common install failures.
• Administrator or root access. Windows asks for elevation on every driver install, macOS asks for your login password, and Linux asks for the sudo password.
• A working internet connection, unless you already have the driver file. A machine with no working network adapter is exactly the case where you need the offline method further down.
• A way back. A System Protection restore point on Windows, a Time Machine backup on macOS, or at least two bootable kernels on Linux. Verify the restore point actually exists before you start.
• Your current driver versions, written down. Device Manager, then the device, then Properties, then the Driver tab. The Driver Date, Driver Version and Digital Signer fields are what you compare afterwards, and what tells a rollback whether it is even possible.
• The official support page for your machine or your component. Not a search result that looks official. Type the address yourself, or reach it from the manufacturer’s own site.
• Full mains power for a laptop. A driver install that dies at 4 percent battery leaves you with a machine that may not boot.

How to Update Drivers the Right Way: Step-by-Step

Identify the Device and Operating System First

Write the model down before you download anything. Support pages are organised by model, and the difference between two similar-looking models is often a different chipset entirely.

On Windows, Win and R, then msinfo32, gives you System Model, System Type, Processor and the OS build. For a specific piece of hardware, open Device Manager, right-click the device, choose Properties, go to the Details tab and set the property to Hardware Ids. The Hardware Ids line looks like PCIVEN_10DE&DEV_249C, and that string is the reliable way to identify an exact part when a model name is ambiguous.

On macOS, the Apple menu, then About This Mac, shows the model name, chip and serial number. For deeper detail, open System Information from Applications, Utilities, or through the Window menu. The Serial number is what Apple’s support pages ask for.

On Linux, cat /etc/os-release gives the distribution and version, and uname -r gives the running kernel. Keep the kernel version in view for the whole procedure, because on Linux the kernel is usually the thing that owns the driver.

Check Whether an Update Is Actually Available

A device that is working fine does not need a newer driver, and a large share of self-inflicted problems come from updating something that was never broken. Check first.

On Windows, open Settings, then Windows Update, and run Check for updates. Driver packages usually appear under Advanced options, then Optional updates, then Driver updates. That page is also where firmware and BIOS updates hide, and those matter more than most display drivers. To see what a device currently has, open Device Manager, right-click the device, choose Properties and read the Driver tab.

On macOS, open System Settings, then General, then Software Update. Apple ships display, trackpad, Touch ID, battery, wireless and Thunderbolt changes inside macOS updates, so there is rarely a separate driver to hunt for. Turn on Advanced options to see the supplementary updates. A red badge next to Software Update means something more serious than a routine driver refresh, and it is worth reading the note under it.

On Linux, run ubuntu-drivers status. It prints recommended drivers for anything that needs a proprietary module, and prints nothing when your hardware is fully covered by the kernel. That empty output is a good result, not a failure.

Download Drivers Only From the Official Source

Sources are not interchangeable, and the order matters. On a laptop, the manufacturer tested the hardware with the drivers it shipped. On a desktop you built yourself, the component vendor’s driver is usually newer than anything Microsoft has signed.

Here is how the four official sources compare:

• Manufacturer support page. Best for laptops, all-in-ones, and anything with a quirky touchpad, fingerprint reader or battery gauge. The trade-off is that it often lags a few months behind the newest vendor release.
• Windows Update. Best for day-to-day hardware with no new features needed. It can lag behind, and it occasionally pushes a version that causes problems.
• Component vendor app. Best for graphics, audio and network cards, especially in a desktop. Newest versions come first, which is not always the most tested.
• Microsoft Update Catalog. The fallback for retired or unusual hardware with no current support page. Packages there can be unsigned or barely tested, so use it only when nothing else exists.

For macOS there is no download step for Apple hardware. Third-party devices, such as a USB interface or a third-party Thunderbolt dock, come with an installer from that maker.

For Linux, stay inside your distribution’s package manager. Run sudo apt update then sudo apt install ubuntu-drivers, and treat any runsetup.exe a vendor site offers you as a file you do not open.

Signs of a fake driver site are consistent enough to memorise: a download button that actually starts the file, an installer that shows no list of what it will change, a mirror full of banner ads, a “PC optimizer” bundled in the same installer, and a digital signature from a company you have never heard of. On Windows, check the signature before you run anything, using right-click, Properties, then Digital Signatures.

Install the Driver and Restart Only When Required

Install the file you already downloaded, and expect one of these four flows depending on the platform.

Windows, Device Manager. Press Win and X, pick Device Manager, expand the category such as Display adapters or Network adapters, right-click the device and choose Update driver. Choose Search automatically for drivers, or Browse my computer for drivers if you extracted the package yourself. If Browse complains about an unknown publisher, stop and check the signature rather than clicking through. Selecting Let me pick from a list of available drivers is only useful when you deliberately want an older version, and the list does not label which one is stable.

Windows, downloaded package. Right-click the installer and run it as administrator. Graphics packages from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel use their own installer, where a custom or clean install is worth choosing over an express install if the current driver is misbehaving.

macOS. Install the update from Software Update and restart when asked. Third-party installers arrive as a package file, and a newly installed system extension usually has to be allowed in System Settings, Privacy and Security. If an update refuses to install, start up in Safe Mode, complete the update there, and restart normally afterwards.

Linux. Run sudo apt update, then sudo apt full-upgrade, then sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall and reboot. If the machine has Secure Boot enabled, the reboot will pause and ask you to enrol a module key. Enrol it before continuing, or the module simply will not load. On Fedora the equivalent is sudo dnf upgrade.

Restart when the installer or Windows Update says the restart is required, and not on a timer. A display driver change can black the screen for a few seconds, which looks worse than it is. Never cut power during an install, and never close the installer because it seems to be sitting still.

Test the Updated Hardware and Keep a Restore Option

Confirm the version actually changed, then use the device. Open the Driver tab in Device Manager again and compare the Driver Date, Driver Version and Digital Signer against what you wrote down. If the version is identical, the update was already current, which is a perfectly good outcome.

Then exercise the thing you changed. For graphics, play something that actually renders heavily and watch for flicker, artefacts or a black screen on wake. For a network adapter, transfer a large file and check the connection stays steady, rather than trusting a speed test. For audio, plug in headphones and confirm the output switches. For a touchpad, test the gestures, not just the movement. A test that finishes in ten seconds proves very little; give it a few days of normal use.

Your recovery path differs by platform, and it is the part most guides skip. On Windows, a restore point from System Protection, plus the option Roll back driver in the Driver tab, which is greyed out unless an older driver is still in the driver store. On macOS, Time Machine, or reinstall from Recovery. On Linux, keep the previous kernel, which Ubuntu does by default: on reboot, hold Shift for GRUB, pick Advanced options, and start the older kernel. Once it boots, hold the current one with sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-... so the problem does not return on the next upgrade.

Common Mistakes

Nearly every avoidable driver problem fits into one of these.

• Wrong architecture or wrong model. An x64 driver on an ARM64 machine, or a driver from a sibling model with a similar name, fails in ways that look like hardware faults. Check the architecture first, every time.
• Third-party driver sites and driver manager bundles. They install what they like, they add background services, and community reports of devices vanishing from Device Manager after using one are not rare.
• Updating everything at once. When one thing breaks, you will not know which driver did it. Update one device, test it, then move to the next.
• Ignoring optional updates. Firmware, BIOS and UEFI updates frequently sit in the same Optional updates list as drivers, and they matter more than the display driver most people chase.
• Mixing sources for the same device. A GPU driver installed from the vendor and then replaced by Windows Update is the single most reported cause of long-running instability. Pick one source per device and stay on it.
• Grabbing the newest version when a known-bad one exists. Install the latest, test it properly, and if it is shaky, step back one version. That gives you a known-good driver and a known-bad one to describe in a forum post.
• Starting without a restore point. Rollback is not always possible because old drivers are purged from the driver store. A restore point takes ten seconds and is the difference between a five-minute fix and a reinstall.
• Trying Windows fixes on a system that never needed them. Clean-up tools, registry cleaners and “PC optimiser” utilities do not repair drivers. They add failure modes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Begin by writing down your exact model and your current driver versions, then choose one official source per device and stay on it. Create a restore point or confirm a known-good kernel, update a single driver, and use the hardware properly for a few days before touching anything else. When something does go wrong, the rollback path you set up in the first ten minutes is the whole difference between a ten-minute fix and a reinstall.