What are WHQL certified drivers?
WHQL stands for Windows Hardware Quality Labs. A hardware manufacturer creates a driver for their hardware or device and submits it to Microsoft, which will perform a series of tests to validate the compatibility of these files with the intended Windows operating system. Once the driver passes these tests, it is WHQL certified and a digital signature is embedded in the installer zip or exe and the WHQL certified driver is returned to the hardware manufacturer.
How do I know the driver is WHQL certified?
When you start to install a driver, Windows automatically recognizes the digital signature and if it cannot verify the signature or the publisher from the list of validated names, it will warn you that the driver is not signed or the publisher cannot be verified. WHQL certified drivers will install without warnings.
Can I install a non-WHQL driver on my PC?
Yes, all 32-bit Windows versions of Windows 7, XP, Vista, ME, 2000, 2003, etc. they will allow you to install the driver even if there is no digital signature or it is not a WHQL certified driver. When the warning appears, click the Continue Anyway button and it will install without any further issues. However, all Windows 7, XP, Vista, etc. 64-bit won’t let you install a non-WHQL driver on your PC or laptop.
Why aren’t all drivers WHQL certified?
The WHQL certification process takes a long time because there are many drivers in the certification queue. Microsoft charges the hardware manufacturer for the certification. This means that a driver that has a bug fix or introduces a new feature for your hardware will have to be released many days later. So either the manufacturer skips the WHQL certification and releases the driver as it is online or they give it their own digital signature and this is called a signed driver.
What is a signed driver?
Due to the time required to become WHQL certified, many hardware manufacturers have started their own validation and compatibility tests and include their own digital signature in the driver installer. When you download such signed drivers, Windows recognizes the signature. But if the company name does not appear in the Windows publisher list, it warns that the digital signature cannot be verified or the publisher cannot be verified. The decision whether or not to install the driver on your computer is yours. If you’re sure it came on a CD or USB provided with your hardware, or if you downloaded it from the genuine original hardware manufacturer’s website, go ahead and install that driver.
How to find WHQL certified drivers?
WHQL-certified drivers are available from hardware manufacturers’ websites. You could end up wasting a lot of time searching for them. I recommend that you use an automatic driver download tool that will download only WHQL certified drivers when available. The best part about driver download tools is that they have built-in machine intelligence that detects all the hardware inside your computer and those that connect to your PC externally and recognizes the hardware manufacturer, brand and model numbers and automatically locate, download, and install the latest version. Updated drivers in a few minutes, saving you the difficult task of finding the model number or each piece of hardware in your PC or laptop, most of which is inside your PC case. You no longer have to search the internet and waste time looking for drivers. I have been using it to update my computer drivers almost every month because reputable hardware manufacturers release new drivers regularly to introduce new features to old hardware and also to fix bugs reported by other users.