Windows 10/11 Won’t Install Drivers on PC
The device drivers are very important parts of a computer. When you want to use a device on your PC, you need to make sure the device driver is properly installed and you’d better keep it up-to-date. However, some users report that Windows 10/11 won’t install drivers on their computers. For example, they receive the error message saying cannot complete the device driver installation wizard during the installation process.
This problem will affect your normal use of the computer device. So, you need to take active measures to solve the issue.
Well then, what should you do when you are unable to install drivers on Windows 10/11? You can use the Windows built-in troubleshooter to find and fix errors. You can also run a DISM and SFC scan to fix the issue. Besides, you can update the device driver or clean boot your device to have a try. If all of the fixes don’t work for you, you will need to reset your computer.
In this article, we will show you how to use these methods to solve the issue. We will also show you how to use the best free data recovery software to help you recover your missing files on a Windows computer.
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How to Fix: Windows 10/11 Won’t Install Drivers
- Fix 1: Run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter
- Fix 2: Update the Device Driver
- Fix 3: Run DISM and SFC
- Fix 4: Clean Boot Your Computer
- Fix 5: Reset Your PC
Fix 1: Run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter
Windows has a built-in tool that can help you solve the device driver issue. It is a hardware and device troubleshooter. This tool is available on both Windows 11 and Windows 10. You can open it via Control Panel. Yes, Control Panel is still available on Windows 11.
Way 1: Run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter via Control Panel
- Click the search icon from the taskbar and search for control panel.
- Select Control Panel from the search result to open it.
- Expand View by and select Large icons.
- Click Troubleshooting to continue.
- Click View all from the left panel.
- Click Hardware and Devices.
- Click Advanced.
- Click Run as Administrator.
- Click Next to run this tool.
This tool can automatically find and fix found errors on the devices. You should wait until the whole process ends.
Way 2: Run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter via Command Prompt
If you can’t find the hardware and devices troubleshooter via Control Panel, you can use Command Prompt instead. Here is a guide:
- Click the search icon from the taskbar and type cmd.
- Select Command Prompt from the search result to open it.
- Type exe -id DeviceDiagnostic into Command Prompt and press Enter.
- The Hardware and Devices troubleshooter will open. You can click Advanced to make sure Apply repairs automatically is selected.
- Click Next to run this tool. This tool will begin to detect problems. You should wait until the process ends. If necessary, you need to follow the on-screen guide to complete the fix. For example, you may need to restart your computer to finish installing drivers and updates.
After running this tool, you can go to check if your needed device drivers are installed successfully.
Fix 2: Update the Device Driver
If you can’t install the device driver on your computer, you can update it to have a try. This can also fix the missing, broken, or outdated device driver. It is easy to do this:
- Right-click on Start and select Device Manager.
- Find the target device and right-click it.
- Select Update driver.
- On the pop-up page, click Search automatically for drivers to search for the best available driver and install it on your computer.
Fix 3: Run DISM and SFC
At times, the issues of Windows 10/11 won’t install drivers are caused by missing or corrupted system files. You can run DISM (inbox Deployment Image Servicing and Management) and SFC (System File Checker) in Command Prompt to repair the system files.
Here is what you can do:
1. Click the search icon from the taskbar and search for cmd.
2. Right-click Command Prompt from the search result and select Run as administrator.
3. Type the following commands one by one and press Enter after each.
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
4. After running DISM completely, you need to type sfc /scannow and press Enter to run SFC on your device. This tool can scan your Windows OS and then restore your missing & corrupted system files. You should wait until the process is 100% completed.
Fix 4: Clean Boot Your Computer
Software conflicts can also cause driver installation issues like Windows 10/11 won’t install drivers. It is impossible to uninstall all software from your computer. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t solve this issue. You can clean boot your computer and then find out if it is a software conflict issue. If yes, you can take further steps to find the culprit.
How to Clean Boot Your Windows 10/11 Computer?
1. Click the search icon from the taskbar.
2. Type msconfig into the search box.
3. Click System Configuration from the search result to open it.
4. On the System Configuration interface, you need to check the option of Hide all Microsoft services. This can make sure that all the Microsoft services are still running after you clean boot your Windows 10/11 computer.
5. Click the Disable all button to continue.
6. Switch to the Startup section.
7. Click the Open Task Manager link.
8. On Task Manager, you can select the startup program that may interface with your system and then click the Disable Then, repeat this step to disable all the suspected programs.
9. Close Task Manager.
10. Close System Configuration.
11. Restart your computer.
12. Check if you can install your needed device driver. If you can, it means that third-party software prevents you from installing device drivers. To find out which is the cause, you can repeat step 1 to step 5 but enable half of the listed services. The recently installed software should be considered. You can try this way until you find the culprit.
If Windows 10/11 still won’t install drivers, the next fix may help you.
Fix 5: Reset Your PC
If you can’t use the above methods to solve the device driver installation issue, you may need to reset your PC. To protect your files on the computer, you’d better back up your device before resetting your PC. In this part, we will show you a full guide on how to reset your PC.
Step 1: Back up Your Computer
You can use MiniTool ShadowMaker, a professional Windows backup software, to back up your files, folders, partitions, disks, and systems. This software supports automatic backup, differential and incremental backup. With it, you can also schedule a backup based on your requirements.
This software has a trial edition. You can use it for free within 30 days. If you want to try it, you can click the following button to download and install it on your device. It works on all versions of Windows, including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, and Windows 7.
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After the installation, you can open this software, switch to the Backup section, and select the disk or partition, files or folders to backup.
After backing up your computer, you can feel free to reset your PC.
Step 2: Reset Your Computer
- Click the Start button from the taskbar.
- Go to Settings > System > Recovery.
- Under the Recovery options section, you need to click the Reset PC button to continue.
- On the pop-up page, click Keep my files or Remove everything based on your situation to continue.
- On the next page, click Cloud download or Local reinstall based on your requirements to continue.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to reset your PC.
Step 3: Recover Your Lost Files if There Is No Available Backup
When you use your Windows computer, some of your files may get deleted or lost by mistake. For example, your files are removed accidentally after you reset your computer and you want to get them back. In this situation, you can use professional data recovery software to get them back.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a professional data recovery tool for Windows. It can be used to recover pictures, documents, videos, movies, music files, and more from all kinds of data storage devices like hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, SD cards, USB flash drives, etc.
This software also has a trial edition. You can use it to scan the drive you want to recover data from. Then, you can see if it can find your needed files. If yes and you want to recover them, you can use a full edition to do this.
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After downloading and installing this software on your PC, you can follow this guide to rescue your files:
- Open the software to enter its main interface.
- This software shows you all the available partitions under Logical Drives. You can hover over the target partition and click the Scan button to start scanning it. If you want to directly scan the whole disk, you need to switch to the Devices section and select the target drive to scan.
- When the scanning process ends, you can see the scan results. You can check if your needed files are there. To recover them, you need to upgrade this software to a full edition. Then, you can select all your needed files and click the Save button to select a suitable location to save them. When selecting the destination folder, you should not select the original location. Otherwise, the deleted files might be overwritten and become unrecoverable.
Although there is a chance to recover your lost data, you’d better form a good habit of regularly backing up files in case the lost files are overwritten.
Unable to Install Drivers on Windows 10/11
If you can’t install drivers on your Windows 10/11 computer, you can just try the methods mentioned in this article to help you out. You should find a suitable method here. In addition, if you want to recover deleted files on your computer, you can try the software introduced in this blog.
Should you have any other related issues, you can let us know in the comments. You can also contact us via [email protected].