Whether you are doing an easy installation or reinstalling Windows 10, you need to install device drivers to allow the OS to communicate with the hardware and peripheral devices connected to your system. Nowadays, this is no longer a trouble, as Windows 10 can automatically detect most of the drivers on your PC. Additionally, you can visit your device manufacturer’s customer support site to download the latest drivers.
However, there will be times when Windows 10 would not be able to install specific drivers on a particular system. Luckily, Windows 10 includes a command to backup every driver installed on your PC, which you can use before reinstalling Windows 10. Windows 10’s driver support is not as lifelong as many of us would like. Quite often, you will perform an update or reinstall only to find that a hardware device that was previously supported no longer works.
It is becoming increasingly significant to perform a Windows 10 driver backup to stop downloads from sketchy third-party websites. When the driver has no support, the operating system will not download it automatically. In this blog, TechNinjaPro will discuss how to backup and restore drivers in Windows 10.
What is a Device Driver?
Drivers are software that controls a physical or virtual device attached to the system. It importantly tells hardware how it should run on any operating system and is significant for functioning. Windows 10 has two primary types of drivers: generic and non-generic. Generic drivers are ones offered by Microsoft that provide basic functionality. If you find Windows uses generic drivers for a PC that had a specialized one or a broken driver after an update, a restore could be your best choice.
How to Backup Drivers in Windows 10 via Command Prompt
If you are relaxed with command-line use, cmd is one of the best methods to export drivers in Windows 10.
- Open Command Prompt
- Export your drivers: In command Prompt, enter
- dism/ online/ export-driver/ destination:”C:\driversbackup
- Check your Windows 10 driver backup folder: Open file explorer and navigate to C:\driversbackup to verify that everything worked as expected. At this point, you need to copy driver files to an external drive or upload them to a cloud service for protection.
Backup Drivers in Windows 10 via PowerShell
- Open PowerShell: Press Windows+ X and tick on Windows PowerShell.
- Export device drivers: the command to export Windows 10 device drivers in PowerShell is:
Export-WindowsDriver-Online-Destination “C:DriversBackup” - Check for driver files: Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder you specified next to the backup argument. Make sure your drivers are there and copy them to another external drive if required.
Restore a Driver in Windows 10 with Device Manager
Restoring drivers is user-friendly with Windows 10’s device driver management tool and device manager.
- Open device manager: press start and type device manager.
- Find the driver you need to restore.
- Open the driver update menu.
- Browse for local files: click browse my PC for driver software.
- Choose your backup folder: Click “Include Subfolder” and click browse. Click on your drivers’ backup folder and press Ok and then Next.
- Complete the Windows 10 driver restore process.
3 Best Driver Backup Software for Windows 10
1. DriverFix
Backing up and restoring drivers is a perfect way to make sure you have something to turn back to if an update goes wrong. That is why DriverFix is one of the best picks in TechNinjaPro’s list, as it both update your drivers and keeps the old versions in case something bad happens. DriverFix is lightweight; where it is actually portable and does not need any setup process.
DriverFix is easy to use and provides a minimalist and modern user interface. The driver backup feature is something you can turn on and off from the settings menu, but it is mainly recommended to keep it turned on. Here are some of the benefits of DriverFix:
- Install, repair, and updates drivers
- Completely portable
- Easy to use
- Performs PC scans automatically
- It comes with a vast collection of drivers
2. Driver Max
Driver Max is another driver backup tool that finds driver update for 64-bit and 32-bit version of Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows XP. Apart from being a free tool, the most incredible feature is that it supports automated repair, installs, scheduled scans, and complete device driver backups, among other things. Here are the benefits of Driver Max:
- Adds an additional layer of protection to guard driver backups from threats.
- Supports unlimited driver downloads for pro users.
- Automatically updates all the corrupt, outdated, and missing drivers on your system.
- It speeds up and takes the system’s performance to another level.
3. AOMEI Backupper
AOMEI Backupper is another premium backup software that is perfectly designed and provides fast speed when backing up drivers and files on a local drive. Its simple interface makes it a simple tool, so you do not need to be particularly tech-savvy to use it. AOMEI’s dashboard offers five primary tabs to play around with, including home, backup, restore, clone and utilities. Creating a backup is suitable for stopping your PC from failure, involving all system, boot files, and program files.
With the AOMEI Backupper, you can easily clone files or driver updates on a disk on another OS, with a command line, as a partition or a specific volume. However, there is no online hard drive. Here are the benefits of AOMEI Backupper:
- User friendly
- Backing up files is simple.
- Speedy
- Offers a user manual for complete beginners.
- Offers a free version