Intel® Driver & Support Assistant FAQ

It's a restructured version of the previous Intel® Driver Update Utility. Improvements allow it to:

• Easily identify drivers installed by Intel and third-parties
• List available driver updates
• Scan for system and device information to assist with customer support troubleshooting
• Host the main interface on the Intel Support website
• Provide integrated support
• Combine several Intel support tools into one location
• Intel® Driver Update Utility, Intel® System Identification Utility, and Intel® System Support Utility
• Provide links to other support information

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7*, Windows 8* and Windows 8.1*, and Windows® 10.

If your OS is not supported, visit the Download Center to look for available drivers.

Typical installation, loading, and analysis takes approximately three to six minutes using a broadband Internet connection (DSL/Cable).

Graphic Drivers

The utility detects integrated Intel® Graphics Controllers for desktop and laptop computers. You can also manually identify your Intel Graphics Controller.

If you have an Internet device using the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 500, go to the Download Center for drivers.

For all other graphics controllers, contact your computer manufacturer or place of purchase for driver support.

Audio Driver for Intel® Desktop Board

The utility detects audio devices for Intel® Desktop Boards purchased through a retailer.

Intel sells desktop boards to computer manufacturers who may customize the drivers. The utility does not detect these drivers.

Wireless Networking

The utility detects active Intel® Wireless Products.

It does not detect discontinued products. Contact your computer manufacturer or place of purchase for support.

Wired Networking

The utility detects add-in Intel® Ethernet Adapters and Intel® Desktop Boards with integrated network connections purchased through a retailer.

Intel sells wired networking cards to computer manufacturers who may customize the drivers. These drivers are supported only by the computer manufacturer.

Chipset INF

Learn about the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility

Intel® NUC and Intel® Compute Stick

You can use the utility to update all drivers on an Intel® NUC or Intel® Compute Stick. If you want to get the latest drivers for the Intel® NUC or Intel® Compute Stick from another PC, you can use the Search Manually feature.

You can download the application from the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant page.

No. The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant only collects system and device information. We are committed to protecting your privacy. See our Privacy Notice for more information.

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant is available in the following languages:

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Spanish

No, there is no fee associated with the Intel Driver & Support Assistant. The Intel DSA is available for your convenience at no cost.

Yes, the Intel® DSA comes with this capability.

1. Download the utility to your system.
2. Run the setup program by double-clicking Intel® Driver & Support Assistant Installer.exe.
3. Read and agree to the license terms and conditions.
4. Select Install.
5. Click the Launch button. The tray icon starts and automatically opens default browser.

The app launches from the tray icon. Launching is not currently available in the Start menu. There is no desktop icon.

By default, the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant places downloaded drivers in your Downloads folder. Typically, that folder is found at:

C:\Users\username\Downloads (replace username with your user name)

To change the location for downloaded drivers:

1. Right-click the Tray Icon.
2. Click Settings.
3. Select Download Directory, and change the location.
4. Click Save Changes to save the new location.

Once the application installation completes, right-click the tray icon and choose Check for new drivers. Launching is not available in the Start menu at this time. There is no desktop icon.

1. Click Start.
2. Open Control Panel.
3. Select Programs.
4. Select Programs and Features.
5. From the list that displays, click Intel® Driver & Support Assistant.
6. Click Uninstall.
7. A new window opens that offers to uninstall the program.

• You have an older component.
• Your component is discontinued or is not supported.
• You have a component not produced by Intel.
• You have a customized driver pre-installed by the computer manufacturer.
• The component is not in our database.

Upon release of Intel DSA v3.0, there is a known issue affecting some systems when upgrading from Intel DUU v2.9 to Intel DSA v3.0. If this issue affects your upgrade from Intel DUU to Intel DSA, try these steps:

1. Uninstall Intel DUU or Intel DSA via Control Panel.
2. Delete all old log files from C:\ProgramData\Intel\DSA.
3. Restart the system.
4. Go to Download Center and do a fresh install of IDSA.

You must manually download and install the latest version posted, if:

• You have Intel DUU version 2.6.1.4 or 2.6.2.3, released between August and December 2016
• You tried running Intel DUU but received a message similar to the one shown below
The auto-upgrade feature was disabled

1. Go to Control Panel and uninstall the Intel® Driver Update Utility.
2. Return to Intel DSA and download the latest version. The latest version enables the auto-upgrade for future versions.

Until Intel DSA goes to a truly auto-update version, this might impact some updates to installed versions, and Intel DUU users who use the old application.

For most users, there is no need to uninstall older Intel DUU versions. New Intel DSA should easily install over the old Intel DUU program. If you do experience issues updating, refer to the previous question above.

Some computer manufacturers install custom drivers.

See some common error messages and how to resolve them.

• Use the Give Feedback option at the bottom of most Intel Support pages.
• Submit a question through the Intel Communities site.

Tips for giving us helpful feedback to improve the tool and fix problems:

• Provide specific information on system type, OS, browser, and exact details on the issue.
• Attach debug log files found at C:\ProgramData\Intel\DSA.

You can learn how to roll back your driver to a previous version.

Browse through the Communities Forum to see if other users have posted similar issues.

Intel uses information about your computer's performance to make product improvements that may benefit you in the future. For example, if the data shows that a driver is not performing as expected, Intel uses that information for future driver updates.

When you install the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant, click the Accept on the invitation to join Intel® Computing Improvement Program.

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant still automatically detects and installs new drivers for your computer. However, system performance information is no longer collected or sent to Intel. As a result, performance information from your computer cannot be used to improve future products.

Intel wants to provide the best computing experiences. To accomplish this, we would like your permission to collect, use, and combine information to understand:

• The categories of websites you visit
• How you use your computer
• Other devices in your computing environment

The information collected includes web browsing history that shows how long and how often you visited specific categories of sites. All site visits are classified into one of 30 categories. We do not collect URLs, web pages titles, or user-specific content without explicit permission from you.

Collected information contains:

• Your device manufacturer
• CPU model
• Memory and display configuration
• OS version
• Software versions
• Region and language settings
• Other devices in your computing environment
• Software usage (for example number of times used, duration of use, etc.)
• Feature usage

Collected data is associated with a randomly generated unique identifier (GUID) that is stored on your device. Other devices in your computing environment include universal plug and play devices (for example, Smart TV model and vendor information, and Video Streaming devices), and devices that broadcast information to your computer on a local area network.

The collected information is used to help Intel:

• Understand how well our products perform over time
• Determine the usefulness of our products
• Detect issues and identify future product improvements

The information collected does not include any actual content you create or view, and is not used to identify you without your explicit permission. The Intel® Computing Improvement Program utilizes reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect the information collected against unauthorized or unlawful access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. See the Intel Privacy Notice for more information.

The information collected may be processed by authorized service providers who are required to keep this information confidential. For more information see the Intel Privacy Notice

We continue to periodically monitor your system until you opt out. Periodic monitoring allows Intel to detect when your system or drivers perform poorly.

Data collected from your system is temporarily stored locally on your system before being uploaded to a secure cloud environment. It is stored alongside data collected previously from your system.

Intel keeps the data for a maximum of seven years. Intel takes reasonable steps to reduce the risk that any data kept for over three years can be traced to a particular computer.

Unless you provide explicit consent, the information we collect:

• Will not include any directly identifying personal information such as name, email address, IP address, or MAC address
• Will not include the URL (web address) for specific sites visited
• Will not be used to identify or contact you

Yes. You can stop participation anytime using either of the two options below. To stop participation via the Control Panel:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Click View By and select Large Icons or Small Icons.
3. Click the Intel® Computing Improvement Program label.
4. If the Windows User Account Control window appears, allow application to make changes.
5. In the Intel® Computing Improvement Program window, click No.

To stop participation via the System Tray:

1. Click the system tray icon for Intel® Driver & Support Assistant.
2. Click the Intel® Computing Improvement Program label.
3. If the Windows User Account Control window appears, allow application to make changes.
4. In the Intel® Computing Improvement Program window, click No.

Yes. You can join anytime using either of the two options below. To join the program via the Control Panel:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Click View By and select Large Icons or Small Icons.
3. Click the Intel® Computing Improvement Program label.
4. If the Windows User Account Control window appears, allow application to make changes.
5. In the Intel® Computing Improvement Program window, click Yes.

To join the program via the System Tray:

1. Click the system tray icon for Intel® Driver & Support Assistant.
2. If the Windows User Account Control window appears, allow application to make changes.
3. In the Intel® Computing Improvement Program window, click Yes.

1. Open Programs and Features from the Windows Control Panel.
2. Select Intel® Computing Improvement Program.
3. Click Uninstall.
4. If prompted to confirm uninstall, click Yes.
5. If prompted to close open applications, select Automatically close applications and attempt to restart them after setup is complete, and click OK.
6. If prompted again to close applications, click OK.
7. Uninstall is now complete.

Yes. These components are installed separately and you can remove each one independently. Intel® Driver & Support Assistant should not be affected.

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant registers two components in Programs and Features. In order to completely uninstall, open Programs and Features, choose Intel® Driver & Support Assistant and uninstall it. Then, choose Intel® Computing Improvement Program and uninstall it.