Having out of date drivers, especially network drivers, can cause problems with network reliability and stability. This was a particularly acute problem when Windows 7 was first introduced. In many situations network performance was much slower than Windows XP and\/or not as reliable.<\/p>\n
While the migration to Windows 8 appears to be going more slowly than it did from Windows 7 to XP, we are wondering if similar experiences and problems will arise in this new environment as well.<\/p>\n
We’ve also found that using the Microsoft’s driver version update\/check feature is unreliable. Often driver updates are available from the original equipment manufacturer’s website yet the Microsoft check utility reports that the driver is up to date.<\/p>\n
Another challenge is that original equipment manufacturers sometimes have difficult to navigate websites and it is often not possible to establish what network adaptor\/driver version is being used that requires updating. In a situation like this it is sometimes a trial and error process to determine which download is applicable to your situation. Add to all this a situation where you have many different PC’s with different LAN cards in use, and the difficulties escalate.<\/p>\n
One solution to these problems we like is to use Advanced System Care<\/em> to do the hard work automatically. The company provides a free version and besides checking and updating your drivers for you, it also includes various other disk and system clean-up tools that can improve your PC and network performance. We’re not paid to recommend this product. We’re mentioning it because it’s a good tool and it can save our users a lot of headaches, particularly if they are experiencing network related problems in their environment.<\/p>\n