In some cases, for example, when you need to install a driver for an unknown device , you can find drivers without an automatic installer: as a rule, this is a regular ZIP archive containing .INF .SYS files and others.
This simple tutorial details how to manually install drivers from .inf files on Windows 10, Windows 11, or previous versions of the system.
- Installing the INF driver in Windows 10 and Windows 11
- Video instruction
.INF driver installation process in device manager
Suppose that you downloaded the driver of a known device in the form of an archive, unpacked it and now you have a folder with the files of this driver available.
The process of installing such a driver in this case will consist of the following steps:
- Open Device Manager. In Windows 10 and Windows 11, for this, you can right-click on the “Start” button and select the desired item in the context menu. In all recent versions of Windows, you can also press the Win + Rkeys , type msc, and press Enter.
- In Device Manager, right-click on the device we are installing the driver for and select “Update Driver”.
- Select “Find drivers on this computer”.
- In the Search for drivers in the following location box, click Browse and specify the path to the folder where the .INF file and other driver files are located.
- Click “Next”.
If everything went well, and the driver is indeed suitable for this device, the installation will be completed and the necessary drivers are placed in the appropriate system location in Windows (More: Where are the drivers stored in Windows ).
