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Windows Hyper-V-Server
How to update device drivers on Hyper-V-Server
Hyper-V-Server (as with Windows Server Core) does not give you access to the GUI and that means that you cannot access Device Manager to manage and update device drivers. Instead device driver management has to be done via the command line.
These are my notes on how to accomplish driver management tasks from the command line:
List device drivers
To list device drivers enter the following at the command prompt:
pnputil /e
Update a device driver
The first task is to obtain the device driver (or updated device driver). Sadly there is no automatic way of doing this. So you will need to track down the device driver to use, visiting manufacturers websites is often a good place to start.
Once you have the device driver (unzipped if it is contained in a .zip file), use the following to install the device driver:
pnputil -i -a driver-inf
where driver-inf is the name of the .inf file
for the driver, or to install all drivers in a folder:
pnputil -i -a *.inf
Enable and disable a device driver
Sadly there doesn't seem to be a way of enabling or disabling devices from the command line.
The best (free) tool I have found for listing, enabling and disabling devices is DevManView which is available here: www.nirsoft.net/utils/device_manager_view.html
About the author: Brian Cryer is a dedicated software developer and webmaster. For his day job he develops websites and desktop applications as well as providing IT services. He moonlights as a technical author and consultant.