System tower · floor

How to update graphics drivers, and the generic one to look for

The question how to update graphics drivers has a different answer from the same question about every other driver on the machine, and the difference is not folklore. Microsoft gives one instruction for drivers in general and a different one for display adapters, on two of its own pages.

“To get the best experience from a Windows device, it’s best to install a driver from the display adapter manufacturer.”

That is Microsoft, about graphics specifically — and it is the opposite of what Microsoft says about drivers in general, where its own advice is that “the best way to get driver updates in Windows is automatically using Windows Update”. Both sentences are Microsoft’s and both are current. Graphics is where Microsoft itself points outward. For drivers as a whole it presents Windows Update as the best route and its drivers as normally recent; for a display adapter it names the manufacturer’s driver as the one that gives the best experience. That is a difference in emphasis from the same company, on the same subject, and it is the reason this floor exists separately from the one on drivers in general.

Before doing anything about it, there is a check that decides whether there is a problem at all — and it is two clicks.

How to tell whether you are on the generic driver

Microsoft’s Basic Display Adapter is “used when a driver made specifically for the display adapter by the manufacturer isn’t available or installed”. Finding it is the whole diagnosis.

  1. Right-click the Start menu, then select Device Manager.
  2. Select the arrow next to Display adapters to expand it.
  3. If Microsoft Basic Display Adapter is listed there, “then the generic Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver is being used instead of a manufacturer specific driver.” Microsoft’s own conclusion: it “recommends updating to the manufacturer specific display adapter driver”.

The name is the tell. Microsoft Basic Display Adapter is not a brand of graphics hardware and it is not a fault: Microsoft describes it as “a generic display adapter driver that’s built into Windows that provides basic display and graphics capabilities”. It is what Windows uses when nothing better is present. Seeing it means the specific driver for your hardware is not installed. Seeing your manufacturer’s name instead means it is, and most of this floor does not apply to you.

What Microsoft says a manufacturer’s driver “often” adds

Read that list with the word Microsoft attached to it — “often feature”, not always, and it is describing the difference between the generic driver and a manufacturer’s one rather than between an old manufacturer driver and a new one. Those are two different comparisons, and this floor is only sourced for the first.

Three items on that list are symptoms rather than benefits, read backwards. A second screen that will not work, a resolution that will not go higher, video that stutters: multiple monitors, higher screen resolutions and smoother video playback. If any of those is your complaint, Microsoft’s list points at the driver before it points at the monitor or the cable.

Three places a display driver can come from, and Microsoft names all three. “Many times, a display driver is available in Windows out of the box and installs via Windows Setup when Windows is first installed. Other times display adapter drivers, including updated display adapter drivers, are available from Windows Update. However, other times drivers might either not get installed right away or might only be available directly from the display adapter manufacturer’s website.”

That third clause is what makes graphics different from the rest of the list. It is not that Windows Update ignores display adapters — Microsoft says it delivers them too. It is that for this one category, Microsoft acknowledges the update may exist only somewhere Windows cannot reach.

If more than one thing is listed. Microsoft: “If multiple items are listed under the Display adapters node… it’s possible that the Windows device might have multiple display adapters. Each item represents a different display adapter. It’s possible that some display adapters are using the manufacturer’s driver, while [others] are using the generic Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver.” Common enough on laptops with both an integrated and a separate graphics chip — and it means the answer to “is my graphics driver installed” can be yes and no at the same time, which is worth checking before concluding either.

Microsoft documents a second way to check, the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, for anybody who would rather read a report than expand a tree in Device Manager. Either route answers the same question, which is the only question this floor is really about: is the driver in use the generic one, or the one written for the hardware you own?

The floors below take it three ways: the check itself, what a manufacturer’s driver adds, and the general rule this category is the exception to.

Where to start

Three ways in.

“Is my graphics driver even installed?”
Start at the check
“A second monitor will not work.”
Go to what the driver adds
“What about all my other drivers?”
That is the general rule

The check

One name in Device Manager decides everything else. Microsoft Basic Display Adapter is Windows’ generic driver, and finding it is the diagnosis.

Updating driversWhat Windows already does automatically, and the optional updates it does not install.Open this floor → Opening the task managerFour routes to the same window, and what each column is actually telling you.Open this floor → Safe modeSafe mode windows 11 is a diagnostic, not a repair. What it proves, and which of the three you want.Open this floor →

What the driver adds

Microsoft’s own list of what a manufacturer’s driver often brings over the generic one — including multiple monitors, which is the symptom people usually arrive with.

Why it is slowThe real causes in order of frequency, and how to tell which one you have.Open this floor → Screen mirroring to a televisionThe other second-screen problem, and what mirroring sends.Open this floor →
Old computersWhat to do with a machine the manufacturer has stopped supporting.Being built

The general rule

For everything that is not a display adapter, Microsoft’s advice runs the other way — let Windows Update do it. Knowing both sentences is the point.

Updating driversThe general case: Windows Update, the optional list, and Microsoft’s note that its drivers are normally recent.Open this floor →
Optimisers and cleanersWhat this category does, what it claims, and the gap between the two.Being built
Downloading safelyWhy the first search result is often not the real page, and how to tell.Being built

What this tower will not do

It will not tell you that new graphics drivers make a computer faster. Microsoft’s list compares a manufacturer’s driver with the generic one, not one version with the next.

It will not name a graphics card manufacturer’s download page. Microsoft points at “the display adapter manufacturer’s website”, and which one that is depends on hardware this floor cannot see.

And it will not treat this as the rule for drivers generally. Microsoft says the opposite about drivers as a whole, and both sentences are quoted here. What holds instead is simple: the description of the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, the advice to install a driver from the display adapter manufacturer, the list of what a manufacturer’s driver often features, the three places a display driver can come from, the Device Manager check and the note about multiple display adapters are quoted from Microsoft’s support documentation, listed below.

Where this page got its facts

  1. Microsoft Support — Microsoft Basic Display Adapter in Windows (that it is a generic display adapter driver built into Windows providing basic display and graphics capabilities, used when a manufacturer-specific driver is not available or installed; that to get the best experience it is best to install a driver from the display adapter manufacturer; the list of what manufacturer drivers often feature, including faster performance, smoother video playback, higher screen resolutions, improved battery life, support for multiple monitors, additional graphical features and better stability; that a display driver may arrive via Windows Setup, via Windows Update, or only from the manufacturer’s website; the Device Manager route to expand Display adapters and the meaning of finding Microsoft Basic Display Adapter listed there, with Microsoft’s recommendation to update to the manufacturer-specific driver; the note that multiple items indicate multiple display adapters which may use different drivers; and the DirectX Diagnostic Tool as a second method) — support.microsoft.com, read 22 August 2026.
  2. Microsoft Support — Update drivers through Device Manager in Windows (the tip that the best way to get driver updates in Windows is automatically using Windows Update, quoted here as the general rule that graphics is the exception to) — support.microsoft.com, read 22 August 2026.

Written by Alberto Gulotta

Founder and editor of AI Tools Primer, writing from Palermo, Italy. Thirty-five years of taking computers apart, starting with a Commodore 64 — the long version is on the about page.

Something wrong on this page? Write to aitoolsprimer@gmail.com and it gets fixed.

Written on 22 August 2026.

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