Is it safe to let Windows update hardware drivers?

[Gjwilly]

I just installed Windows 7 on a 2011 Air and when running Windows update it found new drivers for the video card.
As a general rule should I let Windows manage the hardware drivers or should I only go with Bootcamp-managed drivers?
It seems weird that the latest Bootcamp drivers wouldn't actually be the latest available.
Does Apple not update their Windows drivers as often as others?

 

[saturnotaku]

Does Apple not update their Windows drivers as often as others?

As Boot Camp is a courtesy and barely supported in an official capacity, Windows drivers are at the bottom of Apple's priority list. Most of the basic drivers that are included in the Windows support software (CPU chipset, audio, networking, etc) are fine, but as you've seen, the graphics ones are quite out of date. The latest Windows software supplied by Apple for my MBP 15, which was released last month, includes GPU drivers from 2012.

In your case, it would be best to download updated graphics drivers directly from Intel.

 

[jenzjen]

I just installed Windows 7 on a 2011 Air and when running Windows update it found new drivers for the video card.
As a general rule should I let Windows manage the hardware drivers or should I only go with Bootcamp-managed drivers?
It seems weird that the latest Bootcamp drivers wouldn't actually be the latest available.
Does Apple not update their Windows drivers as often as others?

you should always install the boot camp pkg first and then feel free to use windows update to maintain the system going forward

here are the latest boot camp drivers for your machine

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5634

 

[Quackers]

I would suggest creating a manual restore point before you install the update.Windows graphics updates can go badly, occasionally.