The Windows 7 post install tasks involve installing any hardware or device drivers that Windows Setup missed or did not have. Ideally, all hardware that was plugged into the system during the setup should be installed and working. The ideal scenario has occurred multiple times with Windows 7, but it might not have for you.
Microsoft does not make drivers for most of the hardware on your system; therefore, it should not be held liable for not supporting the hardware from a clean install. As many of you may have witnessed, these incompatibility issues arose somewhat frequently with Windows Vista, and Microsoft really tried to get it right this time.
To see how well Microsoft installed your hardware in Windows 7, you must visit what has traditionally been called the Device Manager. The Device Manager may be started in the Start menu Search bar by typing device man and pressing Enter. The Device Manager should look familiar if you have ever used earlier versions of the manager.
Another way to get to the Device Manager is by clicking the Start menu, right-clicking Computer, and selecting Properties. On the System screen of the Control Panel, select Device Manager on the top left.
Once the Device Manager has been opened, you will see a list of all the hardware on your system, and any open tree or node with a yellow exclamation or bang will indicate a driver that was not correctly installed. You may or may not be able to determine what hardware did not install correctly based on the tree and name of the entity. Thankfully, Windows 7 does introduce the following new and improved built-in ways of finding the correct driver for your hardware and installing it:
Action Center – the Action Center has an option under Maintenance to Check for solutions for problems with your machine.
Automatically – by right-clicking the device and selecting Update Driver Software, Windows 7 will search the local system and any media connected to find the correct driver. This will rarely work correctly after a clean install.
Manually – the traditional way of installing drivers still exists by rightclicking the device and selecting Update Driver Software. Manually select the driver for this device by navigating to the folder it is located in. If you did not skip the planning and preparation stage and downloaded all the device drivers for the Windows 7 edition you installed, then you may be able to do this depending on the packaging by the manufacturer.
Run executable driver package – this option is available if you followed the preparation and planning stage and downloaded the drivers for your devices before installing Windows 7; otherwise, you may download the drivers online if your networking works. If the networking drivers are not installed, you may download the drivers from another device and plug the device into the Windows 7 machine. Installing the driver should be as easy as double-clicking the executable and following the wizard.
Windows Update – difficult to do if the network drivers were not installed, Windows Update also scans your computer for device drivers and finds updates online. You must obtain the correct driver for the version of Windows 7 you are running. A Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit driver will work on Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate 32-bit, but it will not, unless otherwise stated, work on any 64-bit version. The same applies the other way around; a Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit driver will work on a Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit version but not on a 32-bit version.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Articleinput.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
Note: This article was sent to us by: Matt Lemden at 10052010
1. How to create a bootable VHD in Windows 7
All articles are property of their respective authors. Please read our Privacy Policy!
© 2009 ArticleInput.com.
Partners: Damenmode