Which drivers should I use on Windows 10 when only drivers for Windows 7 and 8.1 are available?

Question

I've just made the change from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Now, my computer is an old (slightly low end) gaming computer, and it had started to be running very slowly, so I decided to do a 'clean install'. (I first of all upgraded to Windows 10 before doing the install, as I read that this is the easiest way to register the computer.)

Unfortunately, my motherboard does not have Windows 10 drivers available. It's quite old - '08 or '09, maybe - I think even before Windows 7. There are Windows 7 drivers available - and these are the ones that I was using - but also Windows 8 and 8.1 available. (I need 64-bit.) For future reference, here is a link to the drivers: Asus Motherboard Drivers.

My question is the following: Should I use the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 drivers? If you check the above link, then you'll see that there are a lot of assorted drivers for Windows 7 - audio, chipset, lan, etc - but very few for Windows 8.1 - only BIOS, BIOS utilities and 'qualified vendor list' (I don't know what this last one means!).

This would suggest that the additional drivers on the Windows 7 list aren't needed in Windows 8.1 - for example, 8.1 comes with those drivers preconfigured. I'm guessing then that the same would be true for Windows 10? As such, I should only install the few Windows 8.1 drivers?

Which drivers would be most likely to be compatible for a Windows 10 installation?

Solution

I would let Windows install drivers through Windows Update, then install missing/misbehaving ones. This assumes that you already have Ethernet or Wi-Fi working, otherwise Windows Update would be unable to download anything (obviously).

You can determine which drivers are missing by using Device Manager. Fastest way to access it in Windows 10 is to right-click the Start button and choose it from the menu that appears. Devices that aren't installed properly will be marked with small warning icons.

In case you'll have to install some drivers, you should probably go for Windows 8.1 ones.

And, finally, a tip: when you're planning to reinstall Windows get the drivers first, then reinstall. What if your network card doesn't work after reinstalling because Windows doesn't have appropriate driver built in?

Comments

[Admin]

As you said Windows 10 drivers are not available at manufacturer site, installing the one which works for you the only option now.

[Admin]

Do you mean installing the ones which worked for me? I don't know which will work a priori.

[Admin]

Hey there! Welcome to Super User! On SU, we like to keep questions applicable to a large audience and we don't usually endorse software recommendations. Because this is about drivers, it's a bit of a grey area for me. I edited your question so that fits the scope of SU nut should still answer your question imo. Let me know if you disagree with the edits I've made!

[Admin]

Windows 8.1 drivers are going to be closer to what you need then Windows 7 drivers. You should be using the device drivers that Windows wants to install automatically though.

[Admin]

(@mic84, just to make you aware that I am not the only one reverting your edits. Please,only use block quotes for quotes, not for highlighting. Thanks!)

[Admin]

@BloodPhilia I originally posted this on a different SE site, but was referred to this one. If you prefer, I can change the question further: it's really the principle that I'm interested in, not just this specific case. There may be something else that I'd have the same issue with, but now thanks to gronostaj and Ramhound, I know that the 8.1 drivers will be closer to what I need. I was unsure as I know 10 is quite different to 8.1 in terms of being more desktop-friendly, but I wasn't sure whether it would be closer than to 7 "under the hood" (*bonnet :P!). =)

[Admin]

@Arjan When I first started posting questions (I do quite a lot on maths SE), I used to worry about when my questions were being edited. These days I just leave people to do what they want. (Very) often people edit the title to take away the capitalisation, which is actually incorrect, and I used to change it back but I don't bother these days. Similarly, I like to sign off questions; some agree with this, some don't (see meta posts), and the people that don't like to change my questions, which is kinda stupid, but I just let them get on with it these days! =P

[Admin]

Hehe, that's not the way I operate, Smiley. Especially not if the edits are semantically incorrect, like when using block quotes for what are not quotes, or line breaks rather than paragraphs. And all just for some formatting that may look okay on the website but might look/sound plain bad in the apps, on mobile, in screen readers or wherever the data dumps and API are used. (I'm sure @mic84 meant to do something good though!)

[Admin]

Yeah, I guess if they did something like that, I would probably change it back. But when people take away the title capitalisation or just my sign off, I can't really be bothered. :P - anyway, getting slightly off-topic...

[Sam OT]

I've got the Windows 7 drivers still from when I installed originally, and I've got a laptop also (from which I'm writing this), so I can always download additional ones. I was going to ask how I could tell whether a motherboard driver was working correctly, but of course, good ol' device manager. Sometimes I hate that thing so much. =P

[Sam OT]

With regards to the final tip, I knew that I have a laptop also so if I needed anything I could just USB key it across, and I had all the Windows 7 drivers (and also the XP drivers - that's how long it's been since I installed Windows 7: I was still dual booting XP/7!). I only thought after the install that I could check to see if there were more recent drivers available!

[Sam OT]

So also, do you know what the 'qualified vendor list' is?

[qasdfdsaq]

Installing the Windows 8.1 ones will be better. Anything included in Windows Update would most likely have been included in the original installer anyway.

[gronostaj]

@SmileySam, first Google hit for 'qualified vendor list' :)

[Sam OT]

Haha, that would have certainly been a good idea to check first. Doh! Thanks. :)