Netgear Windows 7 Drivers
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Find Netgear Drivers for Windows 7

Finding Netgear drivers for Windows 7 is like finding most other hardware drivers. The tricky part is avoiding all of those junk websites out there that fill up search results with unhelpful web pages in order to drive advertising. Fortunately, Netgear makes finding drivers on its website easy.

netgear-drivers-windows-7First, however, check to see if Microsoft has already built-in a Windows 7 driver for Netgear products that you are using. Open Control Panel and click on Device Manager. Most common Netgear hardware will be found under Network Adapters. If you see your hardware displayed, that means the driver is installed; to update the driver, right-click the Netgear device and select to do use Windows 7 Update Driver feature.

If the device is not displayed or if you need a different driver, the Netgear website is the best place to find hardware drivers. Go to netgear.com and click the Support link in the menu bar at the top of the page. Enter your device number and select Downloads from the page that comes up. Pay attention to what operating systems are supported. Older devices may not have a Windows 7 hardware driver available.

Alternatively, you can search directly from a search engine like Google or Bing. Use the “site:netgear.com” operator at the end of your search to restrict your searches to the NetGear website.

Install Netgear Drivers on Windows 7

Netgear drivers come as EXE, or executable files. To install, just run the file by either double-clicking on the filename after download. The files will extract and install to the proper locations in the Windows 7 system automatically.

Additional software or networking utilities may be installed as well. You can remove this extra software if you choose, however, you may lose some of the device’s functionality.

Troubleshoot Netgear Drivers for Windows 7

The number one problem with new Netgear drivers for Windows 7 is that the company does not include an uninstall procedure for previously installed drivers on many products. Old files may conflict with newer driver files. To correct this issue, uninstall all NetGear driver software by going under Start -> Programs -> NetGear Adapter, and run the Uninstall program. Alternatively, an uninstall utility like Revo Uninstaller can be used to get a more thorough uninstall. Once the drivers have been uninstalled, reboot the computer and try reinstalling the drivers from scratch.

If the above driver installation procedure does not work, the next step is to ensure that your device has the current firmware.

Most hardware has internal code stored directly on the device’s hardware. This is called firmware and is critical to proper operation of any hardware device. Sometimes, this firmware is updated by the manufacturer in order to correct any issues that are discovered after the device ships.

The same support website at netgear.com will have any firmware upgrades.

If neither of the above work, the problem is likely not with your hardware driver. Instead, you’ll need to troubleshoot your network configuration and ensure that your Netgear settings or wireless router settings are configured correctly.