Automatic Driver Update Search is Quietly Axed from Windows 10

The device manager on Windows operating systems has often proven to be a very helpful tool in aiding users to identify problems with PC hardware. For anyone who has had such issues, however, you’ll undoubtedly be aware that as part of the driver update process (which is usually a good place to start if something isn’t working correctly), Microsoft did offer users the opportunity to ‘search automatically for updated driver software’. In other words, they would have a look online (on your behalf) and see if there was anything better currently out there.

Well, in a report via TechSpot, it seems that the latest Windows 10 2004 cumulative update has (somewhat quietly) removed this function.

Windows 10 Device Manager

So, why has Microsoft decided to remove this particular function? Surely it must be a pretty useful thing to have, right? Well, the bottom line is that Windows 10 is already pretty good at applying ‘basic’ updated drivers to your hardware when it is being installed. Yes, admittedly, it does have something of a track history of occasionally (and stubbornly) picking less than optimal choices. Particularly when it comes to audio output and ethernet adaptors. On the whole, however, this particular ‘feature’ has become largely defunct. Put simply, if the driver Windows has installed isn’t right (or working correctly), your best option is to go manually looking and installing it yourself.

It does, however, on the whole highlight one of the biggest problems this feature had. Put simply, it rarely worked. Well, more accurately, it rarely found anything better than what you already had!

What Do We Think?

I’ve often had to have a poke around in the Windows 10 device manager. Usually when attempting to diagnose something not quite working correctly. And, from my own personal experience, having tried this feature on probably at least 30 occasions, I’ve never once seen the ‘search automatically for updated driver software’ provide me with any new driver results.

As above, it’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s just that Windows 10 has already probably applied the latest and best driver update it could determine and, as such, with it not generally providing a solution to any potential problems users may have been attempting to resolve, it has, largely, become a pretty redundant feature.

Yes, it may not have ever worked for me, but despite that, I think I will still miss having the option to at least ask Windows 10 to check if it’s 100% certain the driver it’s picked is the best one currently available to me!

What do you think? Will you miss this feature in the device manager? On something of a side note, did you ever use it with successful results? – Let us know in the comments!