Resolved Confused About Driver Installation Order

I have a Dell that came with Windows 7 Pro. pre-installed. It came with 2 disks Windows 7 Pro. and Windows 10 Pro. I was going to install 10 on it but can't get a straight answer from dell. I tech says the disks have drivers on it but if they don't you can download them from the website and install them in any order and another Dell tech told me the disk don't have the drivers on it and have to be installed in a certain order. So now I'm confused. I know on the old dell machine the install order didn't matter. I have the drivers on a USB flash drive and they're listed (example: SP 68666). It's a Dell Inspiron15 5559 Laptop Any Ideas.

 

I have found that W10 will install your motherboard drivers when I installed W10 on 3 new motherboards!!!
I built the comps with all new parts and put W10 (DVD or USB) in comp and it installed in a full operational state.
I would do the same LJ and W10 will tell you if drivers are needed.

 

I have never worried about the order. Understand that Windows has built-in a large variety of basic "native" drivers. It has to or else it could not communicate with the various devices and interfaces (storage, networking, USB, graphics, etc.) to even boot the first time during installation (or in Safe Mode too). At the same time, hardware devices already know how to communicate at basic levels for the same reasons - to function before specific drivers are installed in Windows. Remember, during the boot process (even after the OS is installed), the OS is not even touched until way into the hardware boot process and the system has passed POST (power on self-test) which you can even see on your monitor before the boot drive is first accessed. Again, if this did not happen, you could never see the prompt to boot into the BIOS Setup Menu, nor could you navigate around or change any settings once in the BIOS Setup Menu as the boot drive has yet to be accessed to install the specific graphics drivers.

This means all the important parts of your hardware will function without installing any special drivers. Advanced and extra features may not function - yet or optimally. But networking, graphics, RAM access, drive access, etc. will function just fine. At that point Windows may fetch the necessary advanced drivers, or you can do it manually.

So the two Dell techs were both right (except about the order thing). The Windows 10 install disk does have all the essential drivers you need to get going, and Windows (or you) can then install any advanced drivers you need post install. I note Windows 10 is particularly adept at this and even has a very impressive and extensive array of printer drivers built in, and will check to make sure they are the latest too.

To all that, I never, as in NEVER EVER install drivers from any hardware installation disk that came in the box with the hardware. No doubt those drivers will be outdated, often extremely outdated. And often, the driver installer on those disks will foist all sorts of resource hogging junk on your system you just don't need, and probably don't want. Printer makers are notorious for doing this. So are graphics solution makers. If you need new drivers, download them from the motherboard maker, or the device maker if an add-on device.

 

Thank you retiredlearner and Bill for clearing that up for me. I got confused I guess old age. I just wanted to check here before I did anything stupid. I will highlight all the drivers on the USB drive and install them in any order like I used to do. The Dell is new.

 

I'll install first BIOS, Second System Software(update utility) then chipset drivers. Then go to the Dell website and then let Dell Auto detect the rest of the drivers and install them. How does that sound?

 

The BIOS is already the latest version. So Dell isn't as proprietary as it used to be. Was searching and right under my nose on the Dell website I finally found This

 

I had win 10 pro in my hp pavilion dv6t 3000se laptop and Microsoft kept trying to install a graphics driver that was not compatible with my laptop it finally installed and put my computer into a boot loop. Rendering the laptop unbootable so I uninstalled win 10 and reinstalled win 7 ult.

 

LJ, please sort out which laptop you are having the problem with.

I would have just put the W10 disc and installed it.Thanks Neil.
My HP 1000-1333TU Notebook build date 31/08/2013 originally installed with Windows 8. Home 64bit.
This was upgraded to W8.1 and then upgraded to W10 Home 64bit without any driver problems at all.
These upgrades were done through Windows Update. I used AOMEI to clone from the HDD to a SSD about 12 months ago.
The only additional work I had to do was insert my HP Printer CD to finish install. (HP C--P) as it only took seconds to complete.

 

I should have clarified that I installed the MS drivers that crashed the HP last year. I do not want to have the same thing happen to the Dell. Sometimes the MS drivers aren't all they are cracked up to be. My dell is a business machine and didn't come with any crapware.

 

MS drivers in the W10 OS should be the latest produced for and approved by MS to suit W10.
MS required interested parties to produce drivers/chipsets etc. while developing W10 so that they could be approved (tested) by MS.
Not all manufacturers got up to speed in time and that is why we have these glitches occurring.
I can only repeat - I had no problems with my HP Notebook. No problems were encountered with the new comp builds and the drivers were provided and installed by MS.
I noticed on the HP website, that your HP Pavilion had build dates prior to and after a certain date with reference to drivers etc.

 

How old is old is your HP notebook. I have two HP notebooks both running Win 10 Pro. one crashed because MS forced a graphics driver that was incompatible with my graphics card putting it into a continuous boot loop, the second HP notebook failed to update anymore no matter what I tried. I just do not want any of this to happen to the Dell machine when I install Win 10 Pro on it.. I'll figurer it out. Thanks everyone for all the help.

 

I don't "get" drivers from Microsoft (via Windows Update), but I often will use the Microsoft "native" drivers that were installed during Windows, and stick with them if everything is stable. And I don't upgrade drivers just because a new one is out there. It has to fix a problem I am having, or address some security issue (which is very rare).

 

Yeah, same here. Sadly, both AMD and NVIDIA drivers typically contain all sorts of useless (IMO), bloated junk that they foist on our systems whether we want it or not.

 

I got a new Seagate FireCuda 2.5' 2TBHDD. Going to try and swap between drives Windows7Pro on a the 1tb the drive that came with the machine and Windows10Pro that I'm going to install on the 2TB.

 

I started another thread BIOS Question/Swapping Drives. I have a few questions about Legacy and UEFI in reference to swapping drives. One drive with Windows7Pro and the other with Windows10Pro.