They Want You to Update Your Drivers
But They Won't Tell You
How. But I Will.
My name is Ivor
I'm an engine
driver
— A
Quick One, While He's Away, The Who
Security vendor Fortinet, reported on a threat that has been active since 2021. As reported in Bleeping Computer, March 30, 2023, "Realtek and Cacti flaws now actively exploited by malware botnets." The article goes on about all the various botnets this vulnerability exploits. And how everybody needs to update yesterday. Yeah, Yada Yada...The end is nigh. "The recommended action to defend against Mootbot and ShellBot is to use strong administrator passwords and apply the security updates that fix the mentioned vulnerabilities." What struck me was a closing sentence:
If your device is no longer supported by its vendor, it should be replaced with a newer model to receive security updates.
Indeed. Hardware updates, or the difficulty in obtaining these necessary updates plagues users across the spectrum. I recognized this problem some time ago. A year ago, February 13, 2022, I posted two blog postings, about using the Intel driver installation tool to update your drivers. These postings assumed the reader had an Intel based system. If a user does not have an Intel based system, another place to look for drivers updates for Windows systems is Windows Updates.
Run Windows Update from Settings.
Click Advanced Options.
Click Optional Updates.
Install All Updates that are available. Example machine is up to date.
Another
tool Windows offers to help you keep your machine up to date is in
Device Manager. Although with the effectiveness of Windows Update,
it is less likely that will prove useful.
To easiest way to access Device Manager is by a Right Click on the Start Button.
Then Left Click Device Manager.
Device Manager displays a tree menu of all the devices and their hardware installed and its subcomponents.
Click
any of the left pointing caret ">"
A tree menu will display for that category of device.
From
this opened menu, each separate device is displayed.
Right click on any device. A menu opens that allows a few actions you can take.
Left click Update driver.
A word of caution here.
Windows Update will usually install any
available update.
Searching automatically for a driver may also
install spyware or worse.
Over time, I think it will become increasingly difficult to use an
obsolete computer. If you do have an older machine, especially one
before Windows 10, if you can afford to replace that machine, you will
be very pleased with the astounding increase in performance.
Until then, users will muddle through on their older machines. And
the quixotic task of keeping an older machine up to date.
I told that girl I can start right away
When she said, "Listen, babe, I got somethin'
to say
I got
no car and it's breaking my heart
But I've found a driver and that's a start"
— Drive My Car, The Beatles