Audio & Sound
Audio hardware on a Windows PC ranges from the integrated codec soldered to your motherboard to dedicated sound cards, U...
Hardware Directory
Browse 20 Windows hardware categories with plain-English installation notes, conservative troubleshooting, and detailed on-site reference material for the listed families.
Hardware at a glance
Four core parts of a Windows PC
Browse a visual overview before narrowing your search.
The whole directory in one table
All 20 hardware categories
| Category | Families | Manufacturers | What these drivers control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio & Sound | 16 | 12 | Sound cards, audio codecs, and DACs |
| Graphics & Video | 16 | 11 | GPU and display adapter drivers |
| USB & Thunderbolt | 16 | 13 | USB controllers and Thunderbolt ports |
| Network & Wi-Fi | 16 | 13 | Wi-Fi adapters and network controllers |
| Bluetooth | 16 | 16 | Bluetooth adapters and wireless peripherals |
| Printers | 15 | 5 | Printer drivers and scanning utilities |
| Motherboard Chipset | 14 | 11 | Chipset and motherboard drivers |
| Touchpads | 14 | 7 | Precision touchpad drivers |
| Keyboards | 14 | 12 | Keyboard and hotkey drivers |
| Webcams | 14 | 10 | Webcam and camera drivers |
| Bios & Uefi | 14 | 11 | Firmware and Uefi updates |
| Storage & NVMe | 15 | 14 | SSD, HDD, and storage controller drivers |
| Scanners | 13 | 4 | Scanner and imaging device drivers |
| Card Readers | 13 | 13 | SD card and media reader drivers |
| Monitors & Displays | 13 | 13 | Monitor and display drivers |
| Ethernet & LAN | 15 | 10 | Wired network adapter drivers |
| Modems | 14 | 9 | Modem and mobile broadband drivers |
| Virtual Devices | 14 | 9 | Virtual adapters and emulators |
| Game Controllers | 14 | 6 | Controller and gamepad drivers |
| Biometrics | 14 | 8 | Fingerprint and facial recognition |
Graphics & Video
A graphics driver connects Windows applications and the desktop to a supported GPU and participates in rendering, displa...
USB & Thunderbolt
USB and Thunderbolt connectivity depends on host controllers built into your processor or chipset, plus firmware and sof...
Network & Wi-Fi
Network drivers govern how your PC connects to the world, covering both wired Ethernet controllers and wireless Wi-Fi an...
Bluetooth
Bluetooth connects your PC to wireless peripherals such as headphones, mice, keyboards, game controllers, and speakers, ...
Printers
Printers sit in an unusual place among Windows peripherals: the hardware can outlast several operating system releases, ...
Motherboard Chipset
Chipset packages identify platform devices and may install functional components for power management, GPIO, SMBus, or o...
Touchpads
A laptop touchpad's behavior depends on its hardware, firmware, transport, and software stack. A Windows Precision Touch...
Keyboards
Windows includes HID keyboard support for standard typing on compliant hardware. Laptop hotkeys can depend on firmware, ...
Webcams
Many external webcams implement USB Video Class (UVC), allowing Windows to use its in-box class driver. Available contro...
Bios & Uefi
Bios and Uefi firmware is the low-level code that starts your computer before Windows loads. It initializes the processo...
Storage & NVMe
Storage devices and their controllers sit on the critical path of everything your computer does, so the software that ma...
Scanners
Scanners and all-in-one imaging devices use a hardware driver and may expose WIA, Twain, or both to compatible applicati...
Card Readers
A card reader may use a Windows USB storage class driver, a separate host-controller driver, or an OEM package listed fo...
Monitors & Displays
For most monitors, the graphics driver is an important part of image output, while the display's hardware, firmware, Edi...
Ethernet & LAN
An Ethernet driver lets Windows operate a wired network interface controller. Depending on the controller and package, i...
Modems
Modems bridge a PC to a wide-area network. On current laptops, that can mean an optional mobile-broadband module rather ...
Virtual Devices
Virtual-device names describe software-created adapters and endpoints, not a single driver class or universal download. ...
Game Controllers
Gamepads, wheels, flight controls, arcade sticks, and adapters can expose XInput, DirectInput, standard HID, or a vendor...
Biometrics
Windows Hello can use a compatible fingerprint reader or face-authentication camera, but ordinary fingerprint or RGB cam...