It happens all the time. I stumble on something basic online that I’ve never seen or heard of before, even though I read about Windows technology for 16 or 17 hours every day to avoid working.
Apparently Microsoft has had the “Microsoft Update Catalog” since 2007 as a central source for IT professionals and network administrators to download hardware and software updates and drivers. According to the FAQ, it has the same content that is distributed through the Automatic Update system but searches can be done on a wide variety of fields:
These include the update title, description, applicable products, classifications, and knowledge base articles (e.g. KB9123456). When searching for hardware updates (“drivers”), you can also search for driver model, manufacturer, class, or a 4-part hardware id (e.g “PCIVEN_14E4&DEV_1677&SUBSYS_01AD1028”).
I think this would have saved me a lot of time in the last couple of years. I don’t recall ever seeing a reference to it before. One more shortcut for the Favorites page (under Computers / Microsoft)!
