Intel Motherboard Driver Updates

[#1]

Just seen that Windows wants to update two of my Intel drivers for a Z97 motherboard

As is my usual action - I don't - but I wonder how one can find out if the driver updates are actually needed and what they do

[#2]

Found this http://borncity.com/win/2016/12/29/windows-78-1-optional-intel-system-driver-updates/ among many others and as the update isn't even offered by Gigabyte (motherboard supplier) I will leave well alone

[#3]

All that means is that Gigabyte have lost interest in supporting your motherboard whilst Intel have not lost interest in supporting the hardware of theirs that is mounted on it.

[#4]

When ever is see Windows update telling me it's found updates for any drivers, I check on the manufacturers web site - some (if you don't mind) even scan for installed drivers, find them and install them.

The updates themselves may shut backdoors to your equipment and fix component glitches/issues.

I also let Windows notify me, but I choose if and when I install them - I know many have it auto thinking that's better...

[#5]

@Oldjim  have you not tried this ?? http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

[#6]

I hadn't and it wouldn't open in Firefox so I switched to Internet Explorer - downloaded, installed and ran with the following result

So stuff you Microsoft

[#7]

@Oldjim, this may well be the case for your device but if Windows Update is saying that there are updates available then these may well be drivers released by the vendor of your Intel based product, and could be worth while updating.

Does the Gigabyte site offer you any updates when it’s provided with the model information?

[#8]

see my second post - Gigabyte doesn't have any updates either

[#9]

Odd, but how does MS appear to know something that Gigabyte doesn't. Maybe these updates are released to MS first so as to get maximum coverage, or it's a just a herring of the red variety.

[#10]

Asus are the same , MB drivers are old on there webpage  I just normally manually search and update

[#11]

Intel motherboard "drivers" are generally just the .inf files (text files) which tell Windows the marketing name of the hardware and that no drivers are needed, a few might contain a small number of registry settings for the device.

Newer Intel motherboard drivers probably just add the names of newer chipsets. There's not a lot else in them to update.