Intel Chipset Device Software (formerly Chipset Software Installation Utility) is often the Chipset Software and Drivers. This is a common misconception. A driver is a program that allows a computer to communicate a piece of hardware.
The Intel Chipset Device Software, however, is not a driver, nor does it include drivers. It contains information files (INFs). An INF is a text file that provides the operating system with information about a piece of hardware on the system.
In the case of the current Intel Chipset Device Software, that information is primarily the product name for the piece of hardware. This allows the operating system to show the correct name for that piece of hardware in Device Manager.
If a chipset is released well after an operating system, the INF allows the operating system to identify all the pieces of the chipset.
Intel and Microsoft work together to include information on both current and future chipsets in new operating systems so, in many cases, the operating system will recognize all the pieces of the chipset even without the INF. The best rule of thumb is that, unless you are installing an operating system, you don’t need to install this Chipset INF Utility.
If you install this Intel utility after installing the operating system, and the installation program recognizes that some or all of the product names in Device Manager match the product names in the included INF files, it just won’t install those INF files.
Intel Chipset Device Software supports operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows 7
- Microsoft Windows 7 x64
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
- Microsoft Windows 8
- Microsoft Windows 8 x64
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 x64
- Microsoft Windows 8.1
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 x64
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 x64
- Microsoft Windows 10
- Microsoft Windows 10 x64
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 x64
This download is valid for the product(s) listed below.
- Intel B150 Chipset
- Intel B250 Chipset
- Intel B360 Chipset
- Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility
- Intel H110 Chipset
- Intel H170 Chipset
- Intel H270 Chipset
- Intel H310 Chipset
- Intel H370 Chipset
- Intel Q150 Chipset
- Intel Q170 Chipset
- Intel Q250 Chipset
- Intel Q270 Chipset
- Intel Q370 Chipset
- Intel X299 Chipset
- Intel Z170 Chipset
- Intel Z270 Chipset
- Intel Z370 Chipset
- Mobile Intel HM170 Chipset
- Mobile Intel HM175 Chipset
- Mobile Intel HM370 Chipset
- Mobile Intel QM170 Chipset
- Mobile Intel QM175 Chipset
- Mobile Intel QM370 Chipset
- Mobile Intel QMS380 Chipset
