The drivers for the CH340 chipset that was designed by WinChipHead are a requirement for Windows OS to be able to communicate to devices that are connected via it. In particular this chipset is included on boards such as the ESP8266 and the ESP32 for the programming of small projects, robotics and other automated devices. The latest version of the driver that can be downloaded below is 3.8.2023.02 It is important to have the latest drivers installed to ensure compatibility, for much older operating systems from early 2000’s the older legacy drivers will be required.
The following steps are the typical way to install the drivers on modern versions of Windows.
- All drivers are in a zip file, this zip file can be extracted using Windows Explorer or if a third-party extract tool is desired 7-zip is a great alternative and also is free to download.
- Once the files contained in the .zip file have been extracted there will be an installation .exe file located in the folders (directories) you have extracted. This file will need to be run as an administrator.
- Follow any prompts that may come up and connect your device to complete the installation.
