Change we need? Well, it’s one that has been long overdue. We have known for a while that Microsoft is trying to migrate applets in the classic Control Panel to the Settings app.
It is part of the larger drive from the company to migrate the desktop to a more modern experience.
The software titan continues to slowly make the transition, with changes that may confuse some users and delight others. One such change was when the company redirected the System page in the Control Panel to the About page in Settings.
And now we have another.
As noted, Windows 10 no longer features an option to search for drivers online in Device Manger. You will now have to actually rely on Windows Update to do the deed.
More specifically, when you wanted to search for new drivers for a specific piece of hardware on your system, you got two options in the Device Manager — one being to search automatically for drivers, with the other being the ability to browse for the driver files on your computer.
The “Search automatically for drivers” option allowed Windows to locate compatible drivers not only on your system, but also enabled the OS to download the package and install it on your PC.
But due to this recent change that Microsoft has implemented silently, the online search option is no longer there. Picking the option only conducts a local search.
If you want to search online for new drivers, then you will be forced to check Windows Update. What this means is that it is no longer possible to simply search for a specific piece of hardware, but for all components that are installed on your machine.
Luckily, if multiple drivers are found, you can still choose which one to download.
This change is currently part of Windows 10 version 2004, also known as the May 2020 Update. It is enabled after installing the most recent cumulative update.