Q. Why is my computer saying, "Your PC needs additional software to work properly?"

Q. On Win10, in the [Control Panel] Security and Maintenance section, I get a message that "One or more devices connected to your PC needs additional software to work properly."

“The only options are to kill the message without fixing the problem or to install whatever software the system is offering. I am loath to click an Install button without knowing just what’s coming.

“Is there any way to find out what software is to be installed?.

A. This error message is usually the result of a driver issue.

To check, open Device Manager (e.g., via right-click Start and select Device Manager). On its View menu, click Showhidden devices.)

See if any listed devices show a red X icon or a yellow warning icon. If so, try uninstalling and then re-installing the affected device, preferably with the latest Win10-compatible software or drivers from the manufacturer.

Show hidden devices

In this example, Device Manager shows no red or yellow warning icons, indicating that this PC's devices are healthy.

If the above step doesn’t help, or doesn’t show you what’s malfunctioning, use the Win10 Reliability Monitor to see what happened on the date(s) you received the error messages. Reliability Monitor should be able to show what event (hardware or software) triggered the error message, giving some idea about what’s going on .

Reliability monitor

Windows' built-in Reliability Monitor records the what/where/when of system errors. Here, it documents an Internet Explorer crash.