In what order should drivers and software be installed?

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daedal

Gawd
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
686
I need to clean several boxes this weekend and re-install Windows XP. I've always wondered in what order I should be re-installing drivers.

Here's what I usually do:

1. Network & Wifi drivers (for obvious reasons)
2. Video
3. Sound
4. Chipset (are these really required on laptops?)
5. Storage controllers (SD/card readers)
6. Any others.
7. Update Windows.
8. Apply basic tweaks (enable second drive page file and disable indexing)

Then, I pop in:

1. Firefox
2. Anti-virus
3. Firewall
4. Anti-spyware
5. Others (MSN, VLC, OpenOffice, blah blah.)
6. Defrag.

Any suggestions or tips or room for improvements other than slipstreaming updates?
 
Okay, from what I've been able to find, it seems that the Chipset drivers should always be installed first, then a Windows update, then specific drivers.
 
Yep.
If you forget to install something, install it later, no loss.
Once the OS is installed, install motherboard and gfx drivers (and AMD CPU patches), then the OS patches.

You would be wise to check with your chosen AV and Anti Spyware forums to see if there are any known issues in case you need to disable one of them to install the other properly.
 
Back in the day, ha ha, some graphics drivers required chipset drivers to be loaded first. I'm not sure if this is the case now or not, but I don't tempt fate. I always load the chipset drivers, then video, audio, networking, etc, and then run all my updates.
 
first do a major service pack install. Vista SP1 for instance.

Then chipset drivers, then storage drivers if any, then vid drivers and the rest is a wash at that point.
 
Only thing to watch out for with ^ above method is that you may not have use of the network card until you install its driver / the motherboard drivers.
Until you have network access you cannot use Windows Update.
 
I load all the drivers on my flash drive before I reformat. Then I:

1. Install Windows
2. Install ALL Drivers in one batch without Rebooting
3. Reboot and let everything fight for 5-10 minutes until it clears up
4. Start installing applications, installing Windows updates as I get prompted
5. After most of the apps are installed I do the first WU reboot.
6. I install the rest of the apps (like Daemon Tools) that wanted a reboot as part of their install and do more WUs. I then sit around configuring settings like wallpaper while the rest of the WUs get installed and prompt me for a few more reboots.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Back in the day, ha ha, some graphics drivers required chipset drivers to be loaded first. I'm not sure if this is the case now or not, but I don't tempt fate. I always load the chipset drivers, then video, audio, networking, etc, and then run all my updates.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

May be a bit "old school" but still works for me every time.

 
I always do chipset drivers first, then storage if needed. then after that it doesn't really matter.
all base drivers, then updates.
 
For as long as I can remember I've done :

OS
Service Pack(s)
Chipset
Video/Sound etc
Online updates
Then everything else

Rarely if ever had problems
 
It doesn't matter. I've installed stuff is so many different orders and have never noticed a difference. Anyways, since upgrading drivers along the way without uninstalling everything, is common and will happen, you're already out of order.

It doesn't matter.
 
Dnt forget the driver for internet access,either LAN or wireless or it might be hard to update later.
 
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