Simplify a Clean Install with Windows Update

I have done two clean Vista installs now both worked very well and gave me speedy reliable systems. The first time I ponderously downloaded every driver from HPs site and methodically installed them after Vista was running.

The second time I screwed up and downloaded drivers for the wrong model of laptop (mom-in-law's Compaq, I was guessing on the model number from her description before I had seen the laptop). Well, I did not notice my error until I had clean installed and then tried to install the first driver, it curtly informed me of my error and left me with low resolution, etc .

I considered going to hp.com and downloading everything again , but instead I simply ran windows update a couple times and bam, everything was up and running.

Does anyone see any downside to this? Isn't this a simpler way to load drivers? Perhaps a good plan for novice users as it requires no product or driver knowledge?

Thanks for any input.

 

When doing a clean install, you should definitely save SWSetup on a CD. I just use that to reinstall the drivers as it is faster than downloading them online.

 

The only downside is that Windows update doesn't always find all the drivers.

 

yes this works to an extent, sometimes windows doesnt download the right driver and it can cause errors. btw did you download all the security patches & fixes off windows update?

 

Regarding security patches and fixes, yes, I let Windows Update automatically download and install everything important. I did not manually download anything though, any of the updates that I was specifically interested in, (kb941649 for instance) I just verified through viewing update history that Windows Update took care of me. So far so good.

Copying over the SWSetup would have brought way to much crap over, all the stuff I was specifically trying to get away from, and I am not sure I would have cherry picked all the right drivers off of it by hand. Besides a CD is not an option as it is a 2.6GB file on these HPs and full of crippleware. DVD burning is kind of a lengthy process, at least on the lower end drives.

I think I will try this again on my next clean installs, I have to do my tx and a HP6910p. I am hopefull that it will continue to ease the clean install process.

 

Yep, one of them is the Quicklaunch driver (which shows an "Unkown Device" in Device Manager after Vista reinstall). This has thrown off many users, including myself.

However the OP is correct, as Windows Update finds most drivers for Vista. XP, on the other hand......

 

Burning the SWDriver folder should at most take 15 mins if you have one of the 8x burners HP ships with. It is only 2.3gbs and you can see what you're installin so you dont get the bloatware. Each one is a softpaq that auto-extracts, but you choose if you want to extract it. Windows update sometimes gives drivers that may not be the newest, its the ones that have passed window's validation.