Identify direct URL for Windows Update driver

Here is a method through which you can identify a direct URL for a Windows Update driver in Windows 11/10/8/7. This method involves the following steps as follows:

1] Stopping Windows Update service

Using admin command prompt, execute the command “net stop wuauserv”. This will stop the Windows Update service.

2] Cleaning up the local Windows Update cache

To clean up local Windows Update cache, use admin cmd, and execute the following commands, one after the other:

3] Removing driver from a particular device

This step involves uninstalling a particular device driver. Follow these steps,

Start – Device ManagerOpen Display adaptersRight-click on the deviceClick Uninstall.

At the prompt, ensure that “Delete the driver software for this device” is checked.Click OKWait until the driver is uninstalledOn the Action menu click “scan for hardware changes.”The device now comes up with a Yellow-mark over it indicating a driver could not be found. If an older driver was found and installed, you can uninstall that too and repeat until the only basic drive is left.

4] Restarting Windows Update service

With the driver successfully uninstalled, now restart Windows Update service using admin cmd-prompt. Execute “net start wuauserv”.

5] Installing the latest available driver

Follow these steps to install the latest available drivers for a device whose drivers were uninstalled in Step 3.

Start – Device ManagerRight-click on the device and click “Update Driver software.”Click “Search automatically for updated driver software.”Wait for the driver update to complete

6] Inspecting logs to identify direct URL

To identify direct URL for a Windows Update driver you have to browse through logs in the Windows directory. Follow these steps: Open Windows/ logs / WindowsUpdate Open the .etl file in notepad (if there is more than one log, open the larger one)

Search for “. c a b” and find the last match in the file.

Remove spaces from the string to get the URL of the .cab file. Remove the regional datacenter prefix “au.ds”: You will get for example the URL:

This is the direct download to your device driver Source: MSDN blogs.