How To Find a Driver’s Version Number?

It’s not always easy to control advanced technology. Most people are well aware of that fact. However, what people are often less aware of is the fact that they’re surrounded by advanced technology. It’s easy to forget that one’s home computer or laptop is equivalent to a supercomputer of just a few decades in the past.

Some of this lack of realization comes from the fact that computers are fairly easy to manage these days. Or, rather, it might be better to say that computers have become quite adept at self management. The average computer is now so advanced that it can tackle the very difficult task of maintaining itself. And this really has been a nearly perfect solution. Or at least it’s the perfect solution right up to the point where it no longer works as intended.

And this actually does happen every now and then. If one hasn’t experienced it then it’s usually more a matter of when that will change rather than if it will. Often times one simply needs to match up various driver versions though. This tends to happen with more advanced hardware than with something more on the line of a mouse. But it can be easier to understand with an example. One will often find this easier to understand with an example. Consider a case where someone has a new Dell d6000 dock. However, on installing the Dell d6000 dock drivers he discovers that there’s a minimum supported version of his video card drivers. This type of compatibility issue isn’t very rare. In the case of the Dell d6000 dock drivers it’s an issue of the video card needing certain capabilities.

Finding that value is much easier than it used to be. And this will tell one if there actually is a need to update those drivers. One begins by pressing the Win + R keyboard combination. This brings up a new window within which a person can type a command. He’ll write devmgmt.msc and then press the enter key. This brings up a new program which sits at the heart of why driver management is a much easier process these days. The new program is called the Device Manager.

One could find the driver version of any device in this manner. But in this particular example one is trying to determine the value of the video card driver in order to ensure compatibility with the new dock. The actual location of any given device in the Device Manager window will vary on a case by case basis. But in general one can find it by just looking through the list of names. In this situation it will probably be found under the “sound, video and game controller” section. By pressing the + symbol in this window one will bring up the full list of hardware in any given section.

One would find the piece of hardware under investigation. In this case one would look for his or her video card. Next one would need to right click on the name. This will bring up a new context menu. From here one would click properties. This brings up a properties dialog for the device. The section on drivers will be found, rather appropriately, in the Driver tab. This will provide a huge amount of information about the device drivers.

There’s so much information that the driver versioning might be hard to notice at first. But one will find it under the device name at the top of the Driver tab. It should read from top to bottom with listings for Driver Provider, Driver Date and then finally the Driver Version. This will be followed by the actual number one is trying to find.