A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Microsoft’s release of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and many of you decided to download and install it.
I have received several reports of folks having issues with Windows 10 not detecting the wireless LAN adapter in their laptops.
This isn’t really a new issue that just popped up in Windows 10. Every new version of Windows has difficulty detecting and installing the correct drivers for various legacy hardware components, and wireless adapters seem to be affected the most often.
Luckily, in most cases this is a very easy issue to resolve. All you have to do is visit the Support>Driver Downloads section of your laptop manufacturer’s website and download the most recent wireless LAN adapter driver that’s available.
For example, if your laptop originally came with Windows Vista installed, chances are there will be a Windows Vista compatible wireless adapter driver available for you to download and install. In fact, you might even find a driver for Windows 7 or Windows 8. In most cases, the most recent driver will work just fine with Windows 10.
A case in point: I installed the Windows 10 Preview on my ancient HP Pavilion dv4000 laptop. The operating system installed just fine, but it didn’t detect the wireless LAN adapter. I went to the HP website and downloaded the Windows XP wireless driver (the latest version available for the dv4000) and it works just fine.
Bottom line: Windows 10 seems to be very forgiving when it comes to using legacy wireless LAN drivers. If your laptop’s wireless LAN adapter isn’t detected during the installation and setup process, downloading and manually installing the latest driver from the manufacturer’s website should get the wireless adapter working just fine.