Mega List of Windows 8 Drivers

Windows 8 is out in the wild for quite a while now, but not all companies have been prompt with the release of optimized drivers for Windows 8. I personally experienced this issue and I can tell you how frustrating it is. I think every company should prepare much better for such an important like the Windows 8 launch was. Everything should be ready to go when the OS sees the sunlight.
However, things weren’t like that and users, in many cases, should search on their own for Windows 8 compatible drivers. That’s why we’ve decided to come up with a list that will surely help you out. We’ll try to put here as many drivers as we can find so you can find what you’re look for.

Update your drivers from within Windows 8

Before jumping to the list below, you should know that there are a few ways to update your drivers to Windows 8. Microsoft has thought about this, as well, and they’ve included some very easy ways to update your drivers. Here are two basic, automatic driver update solutions:

1. Windows Update from PC Settings
To enable the Windows Update function, you need to open up the Charms Bar in the Modern UI, then choose Settings. After that, select Chance PC Settings and from there, go to Windows Update. From there, you should already see a few updates available. If not, check for updates yourself. The updates will take place when you restart your computer. Be aware, if you don’t restart your computer even when Windows recommends you to do it, it will restart it “by force”, but will warn you like 3 days ahead. So, it’s better to restart on your own than to lose your work.
update windows 8 drivers

2. Update drivers from Device Manager
This method has been present in previous Windows versions, as well, so you might be very well acquainted with it. Once again, open up the Charms Bar and type there “Device Manager”. Go the settings and open it up. From there, you should update the driver to products that you see with an exclamation mark near them. And after that select Update Driver Software.
update windows 8 drivers 4

If these basic methods haven’t helped you get the latest, Windows 8 compatible drivers, then probably you should download them on your own, alas. If you still will not be able to find your model, then, apparently it can only mean that there are yet no compatible drivers. But that’s less likely to happen, so we hope this list will help you out.

Graphics drivers

We’ve decided to put graphics the first because, personally, I’ve seen this to be the most looked for section when searching for Windows 8 compatible drivers. Therefore, first thing you need to do is to check with the following names, according to what you have in your machine:

Laptop drivers

Laptops usually have “specialized” drivers that you’ll find only on the official websites. Sometimes, searching for graphics driver or audio drivers, for example, on other websites than the website of your OEM is useless. So, if you own a laptop, then you should check out the following:

Motherboard drivers

For those that own a desktop PC, then the motherboard drivers are essential tot he good functioning of the system. Like we’ve explained in our buying guide, the motherboard is the soul of your computer. Therefore, be sure to have all your drivers in place and ready for Windows 8.

HDD, SSD, Optical drives

I consider the above drivers to be crucial to the functionality of your Windows 8 machine, so, if you need a driver for your HDD, SDD or optical drive, then you shouldn’t be too sad, because these are not crucial, but still, they are important to your system. Let’s have a look.
Hard Drives

Solid State Drives

Optical Drives

Network and Sound cards

Windows 8 without a Internet connectiivty is just as good as dead, right? And can you imagine working on a computer that has no sound? Not quite, right? Well, then you definitely need to check the following: Windows 8 drivers for network and sound cards.
Sound cards

Network cards

Peripherals – keyboards, mice, headsets, printers

How would your computer look without a keyboard or mice attached to it? Pretty lonely, right? It might come as a surprise for some of you, but keyboards, mice, headsets, printers or other peripherals also have their own drivers. Usually, they’re given to you in a CD when you buy the product, but if you lost it, here are a few places where you should go searching for your drivers.

I hope you’ve found our guide useful and you managed to find the right drivers for your Windows 8 machine. If you’re looking for something and you couldn’t find it here, let us know in the comments section and we’ll try to find it for you.

Search This Blog

Geniuspanti