[deanhills]

I'm preparing for doing an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  I've got a Dell Optiplex 9020 i7 computer.  When I did research on driver updates, Dell has a package of drivers for Optiplex 9020 for Windows 10 in a .cab folder.  

I'm wondering.  Do I wait until after the upgrade and then go through each device to update the drivers, or does Microsoft have a library of drivers of better known brand computers as part of the upgrade?

Or do I download the drivers to a folder that Microsoft can select from during the upgrade process?

I'd like to know whether I could download this cab folder, unzip it and then file it in a folder where Microsoft would find it during the upgrade process - would Microsoft be looking for drivers for Windows 10?  Or is that wasted energy and I should wait until after the upgrade?

During my research I noted that the drivers are usually found in the Windows/System32 Driver folders.  Any specific folder where one should download the driver update package as there is a pick between Drivers or DriverStore Folders.

Why this is important to me before the upgrade, is that I did a simulation exercise of upgrading my old Lenovo Thinkpad X201 from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Professional.  All went well, except I noticed (could also be my imagination) a slight deterioration in the quality of the display - it's a little fuzzy - not a lot, but enough to get my attention.  So first thing I did was to go to the Device Manager and update the driver but Windows then said that it has installed the best driver that is available. Problem is when I then checked the details of the driver it says Version 1.3.1.0.   I then did lots of research and downloaded the Intel Driver & Support Assistant and then found both Windows 7 and Windows 10 drivers for Version: 8.15.10.2900 Intel HD Graphics the last update dated 2012.  I then managed to download a .cab folder and unzipped it, but when I then tried to update the driver again, Windows 10 insists it has the most up to date driver loaded.

Do I need to load the unzipped folder to a specific directory?  What should I do for Windows to really update the driver?

[Mashiro]

The .cab driver packages that you have found are driver deployment packages for OS deployment solutions such as DeskCenter, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and others. If you extract the .cab files you will find raw driver files of appropriate drivers for the different kinds of categories of hardware such as chipsets, audio, graphics and etc. These driver packages mostly lack any installers or similar because the OS deployment solutions inject the drivers into Windows while they install Windows onto the machine. Some drivers do however have installers included as they might be still necessary.

I found a WinPE driver package for your Dell Optiplex 9020. This driver package is for the WindowsPE bootable environment that many OS deployment solutions use. It is a very tiny Windows version that comes only with the most necessary tools to deploy a OS onto a machine. Due to its minimal state it cannot boot from most hardware without drivers (by default it contains no drivers other than some Windows basic drivers). So this WinPE driver package is used to populate the WinPE bootable environment with the right drivers to get it working on Dell Optiplex 9020 machines. We're mostly talking about network drivers and disk drivers plus maybe some other necessary drivers.

Example screenshot of the WinPE driver package of the Optiplex 9020 (a network driver folder with raw driver files for a network card):


The second driver package I found in the .cab form was a complete driver package for the Optiplex 9020 (almost 850 MB in size). This one contained all possible drivers for the machine. Even drivers for hardware variants that may not be present on your Optiplex 9020 but are on different versions of the Optiplex model (e.g. some may come with a different GPU preinstalled or other additional hardware).

Full driver package content screenshot:


The WinPE package was updated in May 2020 according to the Dell page. The full driver package was however created in April 2018. Regardless of that it still most likely has the right and sometimes newer drivers than Windows might have. Sometimes Windows might have newer files though for some hardware. Really depends on how good the computer manufacturer actually updates their product page and drivers. The Windows driver storage / Windows update driver storage might pick up drivers for the same hardware that come originally from a different product / mainboard.


During the installation of Windows the installation routine will install drivers for hardware that it has in the Windows driver storage (in that case the Windows 10 driver storage of the installer). This happens when you see the installation step where it says "devices are being prepared" and "devices are being configured" or "devices are being installed". The same thing happens when you perform a Windows upgrade. Sometimes the new Windows version might lack the drivers for older hardware because it was too old to include the drivers into the core. Hence why sometimes after a Windows installation or upgrade you might notice drivers missing for some hardware or something not working properly. In most of this cases you can let Windows update install the drivers. Just open the Windows update settings and scan for new updates. It will install device drivers that are available of Windows update along side with the latest updates.

Sometimes the hardware might be even too old or uncommon for the drivers to be available over Windows updates. In that case you will have to find the drivers for Windows 10 or older drivers from previous OS versions that are compatible (most of the times Windows 8/8.1 drivers work on Windows 10 very well and sometimes even Windows 7 drivers will work). Such cases are rare but not impossible. Microsoft cannot guarantee out of the box driver support for every hardware possible. In many cases Windows will install a basic driver for the hardware to work in a limited manner. Linux does the same. It will install a generic driver for the hardware if it cannot find a working original driver. Mostly Linux handles hardware much better with such basic / generic drivers than Windows though.


Just downloading the driver files and extracting them somewhere will do absolutely nothing without taking the right further steps. In the device manager when you want to perform a driver update DO NOT choose the option that will let Windows or Windows update choose and install drivers for a device. Take the option that allows you to specify a folder with the files in them for Windows to look for drivers there. Also make sure to let it include subfolders in the scan. Only then and there it will actually look through the driver files you downloaded and check compatibility. When it finds compatible files it will attempt to install the driver and in most cases install it successfully.

You mentioned the display issue on your device after upgrading to Windows 10 and you also mentioned that the devices has a Intel HD GPU. The bad display quality is not a hardware issue. It's related to the driver of the GPU that is installed in Windows. You mentioned driver version 1.3.1.0 but that driver version of Intel HD GPU drivers never existed. I couldn't find any Intel HD GPU driver with this version. Windows might have installed a basic driver which only works in a limited manner. It won't support all resolutions and most likely not the native resolution of the device display. That leads to it using a resolution that looks bad on the display of your device. The Lenovo ThinkPad X201 is a EOL product. You cannot even find a proper driver download page for it anymore. I could find drivers for it for Windows 7 on a page of a shop that used to sell them.

Which CPU does your Lenovo Thinkpad X201 have? You can get latest Intel HD drivers from the Intel driver page based on the CPU generation of your device. If this page is right your device has 1st Gen Intel i-Core CPUs and comes with a Intel GMA HDH GPU. So that is indeed a very old machine with very old hardware generations. Actually I did experience Windows 10 lacking drivers for many Intel 1st Gen i-Core Chipsets and Intel GMA HD GPUs.

Try this GPU driver for Intel GMA: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa...duct=97497


I can only always recommend to get the proper driver installers and run the setup inside them if you want to install drivers. If no setup is available but you only have raw driver files you can perform a driver installation / update via the device manager but you have to choose the option to manually specify a folder in which Windows will have to look into and scan for compatible drivers like already described peviously in my other statements from above.

Just downloading the driver files and extracting them somewhere will do absolutely nothing without taking the right further steps. In the device manager when you want to perform a driver update DO NOT choose the option that will let Windows or Windows update choose and install drivers for a device. Take the option that allows you to specify a folder with the files in them for Windows to look for drivers there. Also make sure to let it include subfolders in the scan. Only then and there it will actually look through the driver files you downloaded and check compatibility. When it finds compatible files it will attempt to install the driver and in most cases install it successfully.

[deanhills]

The .cab driver packages that you have found are driver deployment packages for OS deployment solutions such as DeskCenter, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and others. If you extract the .cab files you will find raw driver files of appropriate drivers for the different kinds of categories of hardware such as chipsets, audio, graphics and etc. These driver packages mostly lack any installers or similar because the OS deployment solutions inject the drivers into Windows while they install Windows onto the machine. Some drivers do however have installers included as they might be still necessary.

 OK, this is a great explanation thanks @Mashiro.  Exactly the understanding I needed.  It's not meant for users.    At one point I read one should wait for a Windows update, to update the drivers, so I guess that Windows update would be using these tools.

I found a WinPE driver package for your Dell Optiplex 9020. This driver package is for the WindowsPE bootable environment that many OS deployment solutions use. It is a very tiny Windows version that comes only with the most necessary tools to deploy a OS onto a machine. Due to its minimal state it cannot boot from most hardware without drivers (by default it contains no drivers other than some Windows basic drivers). So this WinPE driver package is used to populate the WinPE bootable environment with the right drivers to get it working on Dell Optiplex 9020 machines. We're mostly talking about network drivers and disk drivers plus maybe some other necessary drivers.

Example screenshot of the WinPE driver package of the Optiplex 9020 (a network driver folder with raw driver files for a network card):


The second driver package I found in the .cab form was a complete driver package for the Optiplex 9020 (almost 850 MB in size). This one contained all possible drivers for the machine. Even drivers for hardware variants that may not be present on your Optiplex 9020 but are on different versions of the Optiplex model (e.g. some may come with a different GPU preinstalled or other additional hardware).

Full driver package content screenshot:


The WinPE package was updated in May 2020 according to the Dell page. The full driver package was however created in April 2018. Regardless of that it still most likely has the right and sometimes newer drivers than Windows might have. Sometimes Windows might have newer files though for some hardware. Really depends on how good the computer manufacturer actually updates their product page and drivers. The Windows driver storage / Windows update driver storage might pick up drivers for the same hardware that come originally from a different product / mainboard.

 Thanks for this info.  My Dell comes with a Service Tag with which I can zero into the updates that are needed for my computer.  There are 45 updates.  I guess if I keep on researching through the Service Tag I'll eventually get to a specific package of updates for my Service Tag computer.  Otherwise I'll use the one I've downloaded last night.

During the installation of Windows the installation routine will install drivers for hardware that it has in the Windows driver storage (in that case the Windows 10 driver storage of the installer). This happens when you see the installation step where it says "devices are being prepared" and "devices are being configured" or "devices are being installed". The same thing happens when you perform a Windows upgrade. Sometimes the new Windows version might lack the drivers for older hardware because it was too old to include the drivers into the core. Hence why sometimes after a Windows installation or upgrade you might notice drivers missing for some hardware or something not working properly. In most of this cases you can let Windows update install the drivers. Just open the Windows update settings and scan for new updates. It will install device drivers that are available of Windows update along side with the latest updates.

OK let's say the upgrade has been completed.  What do you see happening when I upload the 9020 update package?  Will all of the drivers be automatically updated?  At what point should I upload the package?  

Sometimes the hardware might be even too old or uncommon for the drivers to be available over Windows updates. In that case you will have to find the drivers for Windows 10 or older drivers from previous OS versions that are compatible (most of the times Windows 8/8.1 drivers work on Windows 10 very well and sometimes even Windows 7 drivers will work). Such cases are rare but not impossible. Microsoft cannot guarantee out of the box driver support for every hardware possible. In many cases Windows will install a basic driver for the hardware to work in a limited manner. Linux does the same. It will install a generic driver for the hardware if it cannot find a working original driver. Mostly Linux handles hardware much better with such basic / generic drivers than Windows though.

 This is spot on for my old laptop Lenovo ThinkPad X201.  As one example, the Intel HD Graphics Driver is no longer supported by Intel.  The last update for the driver was in 2012:  Version 8.15.10.2900 of 26 Nov 2012.  OK now I can't help but wonder.  When I looked it up in the Microsoft Update Catalog there is a version for Windows 10 and a Version for Windows 7.  Do you think the upgrade automatically found the version for Windows 10 - so it has the best version of that particular update?  What is also strange is that the Device Manager Update Details give the date for the 8.15.10.2900 Driver as 26 November and Microsoft Catalog has it as 25 November.    Probably doesn't make a difference or does it?  

Just downloading the driver files and extracting them somewhere will do absolutely nothing without taking the right further steps. In the device manager when you want to perform a driver update DO NOT choose the option that will let Windows or Windows update choose and install drivers for a device. Take the option that allows you to specify a folder with the files in them for Windows to look for drivers there. Also make sure to let it include subfolders in the scan. Only then and there it will actually look through the driver files you downloaded and check compatibility. When it finds compatible files it will attempt to install the driver and in most cases install it successfully.

OK got it @Mashiro.  In my Laptop Windows 7 Device manager there is an option to browse specific folders.  I'll remember to tick that option.

You mentioned the display issue on your device after upgrading to Windows 10 and you also mentioned that the devices has a Intel HD GPU. The bad display quality is not a hardware issue. It's related to the driver of the GPU that is installed in Windows. You mentioned driver version 1.3.1.0 but that driver version of Intel HD GPU drivers never existed. I couldn't find any Intel HD GPU driver with this version. Windows might have installed a basic driver which only works in a limited manner. It won't support all resolutions and most likely not the native resolution of the device display. That leads to it using a resolution that looks bad on the display of your device. The Lenovo ThinkPad X201 is a EOL product. You cannot even find a proper driver download page for it anymore. I could find drivers for it for Windows 7 on a page of a shop that used to sell them.

Apologies Mashiro.  I made a mistake with the Driver version.  The 1.3.1.0 referred to a file that was shown in the Update Details (Info link).  The Intel HD Graphics Version is 8.15.10.2900 dated 26 November 2012.  When I checked the Internet there was one inquiry about how to update it, but looks like there was nothing available.  Looks like Windows 10 has given me the best update there is.  I also understood from the beginning that an up to date driver is what is going to make the difference.

Which CPU does your Lenovo Thinkpad X201 have? You can get latest Intel HD drivers from the Intel driver page based on the CPU generation of your device. If this page is right your device has 1st Gen Intel i-Core CPUs and comes with a Intel GMA HDH GPU. So that is indeed a very old machine with very old hardware generations. Actually I did experience Windows 10 lacking drivers for many Intel 1st Gen i-Core Chipsets and Intel GMA HD GPUs.

Try this GPU driver for Intel GMA: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa...duct=97497

You're spot on with this @Mashiro.  I'm going to load it straight after this post.  

The details for the CPU are Intel ® Core ™ i5 CPU M520 @2.40 GHz 2.40 GHz
Lenovo ThinkPad X201  Don't know if this means anything but somewhere in the research I picked up on Mobile Intel QM 57 Chipset  and Intel ME Firmware Version 6.

I can only always recommend to get the proper driver installers and run the setup inside them if you want to install drivers. If no setup is available but you only have raw driver files you can perform a driver installation / update via the device manager but you have to choose the option to manually specify a folder in which Windows will have to look into and scan for compatible drivers like already described peviously in my other statements from above.

OK got it many thanks for this.  I think it has a good chance to work out OK.  Looks like Lenovo has done major work on the updates, and also my 9020 is not as old and dated a model I thought it would be.  Like it's still actively in use and there are a huge number of refurbished products out there.  Amazing how this computer is now getting into a second life of being sold again with Windows 10 no less.

---

Update:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa...duct=97497

Made a big difference!  I've got a monitor connected to the laptop - a LG Flatron E1951 S-BN.  It's a very old Monitor that I picked up second hand for next to nothing.  And you guessed right.  LG doesn't have any drivers for  Windows 10.

Any way, after the above update, the system finally identified the Monitor by its name.  I've now got display options I didn't have before and graphics options.  This is a great update for sure.  The display has improved, not fully, but I at least have more control over it.

What I first did was to Factory Reset the monitor settings.  And then worked on brightness and contrast.  Brightness on "0" and contrast around 50.  The rest I haven't looked into yet.  It's on maximum resolution and refresh rate.  I've also chosen to optimize battery life.  For the sake of the laptop.

During the course of the update I got involved with updates, more about that in Windows 10 experience discussion.