Drivers after a fresh install of Windows 11

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
Also in post #15 when you say
5. Rehook the other drives and the internet, and do the Windows updates.
6. Make a backup.

Why would you reconnect the other drives before doing the updates and backup?

The only reason to unhook all the other drives is to keep the Windows installer from installing some of the associated partitions on different drives.
After a clean install the Windows drive should look like this...

All these partitions should be on the same physical drive.

/edit
Yeah the BIOS should be up to date or really close. Your motherboard is too new to have a really old BIOS.

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
I have also watched a video by the guy JayzTwoCents and he mentions that GPU-Z and HW Monitor are handy too. So might check them out. By the way, I will give GeForce Experience a miss too when I reinstall.

Also, I will make sure to disable that Armoury Crate thing in the Bios before the fresh install!

See how you mention "Windows, then drivers, then updates." I thought it was Windows Updates before all of the drivers? Or does it even matter?

Yeah... skip Geforce Experience.
Drivers first then Windows Updates.
As I mentioned... the Windows install will probably take care of all your drivers anyway.

neves · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
Thanks for this. That is shocking how bad this program seems to be. You'd imagine ASUS would decide to either remove it, or completely revamp it after all of that negativity about it online. Terrible!

Since, more often that not - it's hardware issues that have an impact on your trust in a OEM... software developers - don't seem to care. Not the team leader and upper management - at least - where in most cases "nepotism" - is the root cause for bad projects like above (below average skills at their job - but since it's a nephew, brother, husband, bf of the upper management - nobody can do anything about it). I mean, even Armoury Crate is a complete mess (curtsy to nepotism) - if the drivers probe to be reliable - that crappy "optional" software is ierelevant. Thus, if the hardware is good enough (and ROG Strix - is among top of the line) - which in turn implies a good experience - there's a high chance you'll still take ASUS into account as a future client. Despite of having one of the worst software. Last but not least... they're all the same. Or at least - from the top of my had i can't name a single OEM with reputable software - for general maintenance. Funny enough (or quite ironic) - the only name that comes in mind is MSI Afterburner (tho, it's only a GPU tuner - while the MSI software equivalent to Armoury Crate is pretty not very nice too) - it's the only OEM who seems passionate about his work/project. I mean, the poor guy - is working more as a freelancer (so he doesn't work at any of the MSI HQ) - he's Russian working from Russia - yet he wasn't paid by MSI for over a year. As for the irony, MSI blames it on the war with Ukraine - yet at the same time they're still selling their products in RUSSIA (so... they can take money from Russian customer - but they deem it unethical to pay the one guy - who makes decent software for MSI). MSI Afterburner developer hasn't been paid because of Russia's war against Ukraine

Anyway, the common sense practice when it comes to this type of OEM made software - is usually to avoid it like the plague. Only install the Drivers - for best/cleanest experience. Except for GPU Drivers - where the latest and the best optimized can be found at the Manufacturer (nVidia, AMD or Intel).

werty · Feb 14, 2023

neves said:
Since, more often that not - it's hardware issues that have an impact on your trust in a OEM... software developers - don't seem to care. Not the team leader and upper management - at least - where in most cases "nepotism" - is the root cause for bad projects like above (below average skills at their job - but since it's a nephew, brother, husband, bf of the upper management - nobody can do anything about it). I mean, even Armoury Crate is a complete mess (curtsy to nepotism) - if the drivers probe to be reliable - that crappy "optional" software is ierelevant. Thus, if the hardware is good enough (and ROG Strix - is among top of the line) - which in turn implies a good experience - there's a high chance you'll still take ASUS into account as a future client. Despite of having one of the worst software. Last but not least... they're all the same. Or at least - from the top of my had i can't name a single OEM with reputable software - for general maintenance. Funny enough (or quite ironic) - the only name that comes in mind is MSI Afterburner (tho, it's only a GPU tuner - while the MSI software equivalent to Armoury Crate is pretty not very nice too) - it's the only OEM who seems passionate about his work/project. I mean, the poor guy - is working more as a freelancer (so he doesn't work at any of the MSI HQ) - he's Russian working from Russia - yet he wasn't paid by MSI for over a year. As for the irony, MSI blames it on the war with Ukraine - yet at the same time they're still selling their products in RUSSIA (so... they can take money from Russian customer - but they deem it unethical to pay the one guy - who makes decent software for MSI). MSI Afterburner developer hasn't been paid because of Russia's war against Ukraine

Anyway, the common sense practice when it comes to this type of OEM made software - is usually to avoid it like the plague. Only install the Drivers - for best/cleanest experience. Except for GPU Drivers - where the latest and the best optimized can be found at the Manufacturer (nVidia, AMD or Intel).

In fact Armoury crate is useful in certain scenarios like controlling the backlight of the keyboard, changing fan speed mode, the Mux switch in gaming laptops, but it's buggy. It often messes up the power plan in windows, doesn't apply correctly the different scenarios etc.

As for the drivers I always disable Windows update from offering me drivers. I prefer to install them manually and not to let it override the drivers I installed so I disable it via Group policy. I remember that after I clean installed Windows 11 with latest Bios version and Windows update wanted to install the previous version. I don't want to let it install the older bios and possibly render my system useless. This is just my experience.

Always use the OEM site to check for drivers and programs like HW Info to check your hardware and then manually search the sites of the manufacturers of your hardware like Nvidia, AMD, Realtek etc. for updated drivers.

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Ghot said:
The only reason to unhook all the other drives is to keep the Windows installer from installing some of the associated partitions on different drives.
After a clean install the Windows drive should look like this...

View attachment 52710

All these partitions should be on the same physical drive.

/edit
Yeah the BIOS should be up to date or really close. Your motherboard is too new to have a really old BIOS.

Ah think one of us got mixed up. You're now saying remove them upon installation? That is what I do anyway.

But I mean for the Windows updates, why did you say reconnect the sata drives. When I did the reinstall on Sunday, I left them two drives disconnected and was only going to plug them back in once I had all updates, drivers and a Macrium backup done. I don't want them included in a Macrium backup.

neves · Feb 14, 2023

werty said:
In fact Armoury crate is useful in certain scenarios like controlling the backlight of the keyboard, changing fan speed mode, the Mux switch in gaming laptops, but it's buggy. It often messes up the power plan in windows, doesn't apply correctly the different scenarios etc.

As for the drivers I always disable Windows update from offering me drivers. I prefer to install them manually and not to let it override the drivers I installed so I disable it via Group policy. I remember that after I clean installed Windows 11 with latest Bios version and Windows update wanted to install the previous version. I don't want to let it install the older bios and possibly render my system useless. This is just my experience.

Always use the OEM site to check for drivers and programs like HW Info to check your hardware and then manually search the sites of the manufacturers of your hardware like Nvidia, AMD, Realtek etc. for updated drivers.

Good point - about the Gaming laptops using a Mux Switch. I guess they could install it and disable it from auto-starting with Windows- even block it through a Firewall. It's known to auto-update & auto-uninstall itself - even bugged in the process. Fortunately, the OP has a desktop (not really necessary in this case).

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

neves said:
Since, more often that not - it's hardware issues that have an impact on your trust in a OEM... software developers - don't seem to care. Not the team leader and upper management - at least - where in most cases "nepotism" - is the root cause for bad projects like above (below average skills at their job - but since it's a nephew, brother, husband, bf of the upper management - nobody can do anything about it). I mean, even Armoury Crate is a complete mess (curtsy to nepotism) - if the drivers probe to be reliable - that crappy "optional" software is ierelevant. Thus, if the hardware is good enough (and ROG Strix - is among top of the line) - which in turn implies a good experience - there's a high chance you'll still take ASUS into account as a future client. Despite of having one of the worst software. Last but not least... they're all the same. Or at least - from the top of my had i can't name a single OEM with reputable software - for general maintenance. Funny enough (or quite ironic) - the only name that comes in mind is MSI Afterburner (tho, it's only a GPU tuner - while the MSI software equivalent to Armoury Crate is pretty not very nice too) - it's the only OEM who seems passionate about his work/project. I mean, the poor guy - is working more as a freelancer (so he doesn't work at any of the MSI HQ) - he's Russian working from Russia - yet he wasn't paid by MSI for over a year. As for the irony, MSI blames it on the war with Ukraine - yet at the same time they're still selling their products in RUSSIA (so... they can take money from Russian customer - but they deem it unethical to pay the one guy - who makes decent software for MSI). MSI Afterburner developer hasn't been paid because of Russia's war against Ukraine

Anyway, the common sense practice when it comes to this type of OEM made software - is usually to avoid it like the plague. Only install the Drivers - for best/cleanest experience. Except for GPU Drivers - where the latest and the best optimized can be found at the Manufacturer (nVidia, AMD or Intel).

That is an interesting story about the Russian!

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
Ah think one of us got mixed up. You're now saying remove them upon installation? That is what I do anyway.

But I mean for the Windows updates, why did you say reconnect the sata drives. When I did the reinstall on Sunday, I left them two drives disconnected and was only going to plug them back in once I had all updates, drivers and a Macrium backup done. I don't want them included in a Macrium backup.

I've always said unhook them before installation. Even the tutorials say that.
But after the main install is done, you can rehook the other drives if you want.

The "only" reason we unhook the other drives, is so the Windows installer doesn't put the EFI System partition or the Reserve partition or the Recovery partition, on one of the other drives... which is does a lot of the time.

It's just sloppy coding in the Windows installer.

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Ghot said:
I've always said unhook them before installation. Even the tutorials say that.
But after the main install is done, you can rehook the other drives if you want.

The "only" reason we unhook the other drives, is so the Windows installer doesn't put the EFI System partition or the Reserve partition or the Recovery partition, on one of the other drives... which is does a lot of the time.

It's just sloppy coding in the Windows installer.

Yeah cool thanks. Yes, I have seen a few people say that can happen during the installation. I have mine disconnected now anyway.

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Ghot said:
The only reason to unhook all the other drives is to keep the Windows installer from installing some of the associated partitions on different drives.
After a clean install the Windows drive should look like this...

View attachment 52710

All these partitions should be on the same physical drive.

/edit
Yeah the BIOS should be up to date or really close. Your motherboard is too new to have a really old BIOS.

You have 4 sections in the attached picture. In the Disk Management image I posted in my other thread, it only had 3.

New PC with Windows 11

No, there is no default name, you have to supply one. The person who set it up chose it. Thanks Bree, that is good to know.

www.elevenforum.com

Would that be an issue?

Edit:

There's only 3 on my Windows 10 PC too, just checked

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
You have 4 sections in the attached picture. In the Disk Management image I posted in my other thread, it only had 3.

New PC with Windows 11

No, there is no default name, you have to supply one. The person who set it up chose it. Thanks Bree, that is good to know.

www.elevenforum.com

Would that be an issue?

Edit:

There's only 3 on my Windows 10 PC too, just checked

NO.
The only partitions you really "need" are the Windows partition and the EFI System partition.
The other two, aren't really needed.

Backup software does the job of the Recovery partition and does it much more efficiently.
And the 16MB Reserve partition, isn't even used... yet.

For example...

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Over on the ASUS page it says:
NOTICE:
Due to the different structure for drivers, suggest you remove the old driver first before install this version driver.

But when I do a clean install, all of the previous driver records will be wiped anyway, am I right?

Also, @Ghot thanks for that AMD link, the Chipset there is actually newer than the one on my motherboard page.

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
Over on the ASUS page it says:
NOTICE:
Due to the different structure for drivers, suggest you remove the old driver first before install this version driver.

But when I do a clean install, all of the previous driver records will be wiped anyway, am I right?

Also, @Ghot thanks for that AMD link, the Chipset there is actually newer than the one on my motherboard page.

You can just install the chipset driver over top of the old one.
You can also remove the previous one if you want.

On my motherboard it hasn't mattered if I uninstalled the old one or not...

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Ghot said:
You can just install the chipset driver over top of the old one.
You can also remove the previous one if you want.

On my motherboard it hasn't mattered if I uninstalled the old one or not...

View attachment 52744

But what I mean is when I do the wipe, all drivers will be binned, right? As in they will no longer exist on my PC. Or, do you ean old ones will hang around somewhere?

Then when I do the fresh install, I can get them 'from scratch'

Ghot · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
But what I mean is when I do the wipe, all drivers will be binned, right? As in they will no longer exist on my PC. Or, do you ean old ones will hang around somewhere?

Then when I do the fresh install, I can get them 'from scratch'

Windows comes with a wallet full of drivers for just about every type of hardware.
I call them generic drivers. They will be enough to get you to the Windows desktop and more.

Don't worry about the chipset drivers until you have the other drivers taken care of.

Once again....

Generally, I install Windows like this...
1. Unhook all the other drives, and the internet.
2. Install Windows.
3. Install the motherboard drivers, and the vid card driver, IF NEEDED.
4. Make sure you have the latest chipset driver.
4a. Check Device Manager to make sure there are no warnings. <----- New
5. Rehook the other drives and the internet, and do the Windows updates.
6. Make a backup.
7. Then install your programs, trying to keep the data on the Windows drives to a minimum.
8. Do whatever tweaks you want.
9. When all is installed and tweaked... make another backup.
If you break anything in steps 7 and 8, restore from the backup you made in step 6, and try again.

The last time you installed Windows... you did everything correctly... right up until you installed Armoury Crate.

Once you start using backup software... you can keep adjusting things... even drivers... forever.
Don't over-think this. It'll make you old before your time..

Secret document found in the pyramids, in 1854...

Clean Install Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...

www.elevenforum.com

Short version of this whole topic...
NEVER install motherboard "utilities", until after you've made at least one full backup.

Once you have a full backup, you can "undo" anything you've done since you made the backup.

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Hahaha, I agree. I'm definitely over-thinking it. I just want it to be 100% right. I hate winging things!

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

Anyway I had expected to wipe this tonight but I left it. I'll get to it in the next few days. Thank you for the help everyone!

pparks1 · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
I just had a look in the box there. No sign of a disc. Sure aren't the days of using discs almost gone now?

Yeah, I never use the disc that came with the hardware, it's most likely out of date.

When I build a new machine, i just hit the Asus/Gigabyte website, and I download all of the drivers that they offer at the latest versions for my hardware.

I then install Windows, go through all of the Windows update gyrations, until it's complete and then check device manager to see if anything is showing an exclamation point. Most times it's 100% fine. If that is the case, I download the latest Nvidia driver for my video card, install it, and take an image. I then try to ascertain what driver from the vendor I might need and I install it and make the exclamation points go away. If I get it right, I just continue on. If I tried a few drivers and they weren't right, I'd restore my image and then just do what I know I absolutely need.

I also keep a text file going documenting my install, so I know exactly what my steps were upon building. Looking back at my OS load on my primary desktop, i install Windows 10 on Jan 1, 2021. I said NO to armoury crate when prompted, I had 4 things with exclamation points, but noted that they all go away with the AMD chipset drivers, which I got directly from AMD. I then ran all Windows updates. I installed Nvidia Drivers, installed Ryzen Master, and then installed MSI Afterburner to undervolt my 3080. I took my image here. I then downloaded Armoury crate from Asus as I wanted control of my RGB on the mobo to more or less turn it off.

MisterEd · Feb 14, 2023

RedLad said:
I just had a look in the box there. No sign of a disc. Sure aren't the days of using discs almost gone now?

The problem with the disc in the box is that much of the sofware and drivers may be outdated. You are probaly better off going to the motherboard manufacturer to get the latest downloads for them. Some manufacturers have special software that will automatically download needed updates. If they don't I find it sometimes confusing to determine what I need to download. BTW, over time some manufacturers change the hardware they put on the same motherboard model. It is up to us to determine what specific hardware we have and download and install the correct driver.

RedLad · Feb 14, 2023

@pparks1 cheers for that. You mention Ryzen Master. Is that worth having

About RGB, it's a weird one. I couldn't get control on my GPU RGB, then found out I needed MSI Center, then used that to turn off the GPU RGB because iCUE wouldn't give the option to control it. Anyway, then I did the wipe on Sunday, it kept the change I did and the RGB was still off on it even though I hadn't reinstalled MSI Center again. I found that odd.