The spinning dots vanished. The screen went black again.

The install was complete.

Mark waited. 10 seconds. 20 seconds. The mouse cursor turned into the spinning blue circle. The audio of the room—the hum of the CPU fan—seemed to get louder.

There were three options. Realtek, Creative, and something called "Audio Console." Mark hesitated. He went with the Realtek driver—the classic choice. Version 6.0.1.7890. It sounded official.

Windows 10 Audio Driver Install ✓

The spinning dots vanished. The screen went black again.

The install was complete.

Mark waited. 10 seconds. 20 seconds. The mouse cursor turned into the spinning blue circle. The audio of the room—the hum of the CPU fan—seemed to get louder. windows 10 audio driver install

There were three options. Realtek, Creative, and something called "Audio Console." Mark hesitated. He went with the Realtek driver—the classic choice. Version 6.0.1.7890. It sounded official. The spinning dots vanished