but how come Intel's Drivers download page is ancient compared to these? Where do these guys get the drivers from anywhere?
Thats it. They have to pay for drivers to be WHQL (so you can install them), its the vendors that pay for all the non-Intel website releases. At least I believe that is the case!
For second gen core processors with Intel HD3000, windows catalog (as noted above) shows 8.15.10.2653 (Feb 2012). This driver is not found on the intel site. For x64, it downloads as a 68.8 MB file which when unzipped goes to 284 MB. It does not have an exe file and so on a fresh install, one has to install this through device manager and point to the extracted folder. If the previous driver (in my case 8.15.10.2509) was installed thru intel site, windows will offer an update to this to go to 8.15.10.2653. However, if the previous driver was from OEM (desktop/laptop), windows is highly likely to not show it as an update. OEM websites are largely useless and outdated for video drivers or for that matter most drivers. I only pick up BIOS updates and some second-rung drivers for whom frequent updation does not make much of a difference.
If you have a 2nd gen core processor with Intel HD3000 graphics (for me core i7-2760qm), you might find that Intel's site lists 8.15.10.2656 as the latest one. If you had installed 8.15.10.2656 as in my case, you would have recently (past 1-2 days) got a windows update which would have updated the driver to 8.15.10.2696. The driver is also listed on microsoft catalog website. If you google for intel hd3000 8.15.10.2696, you will also get links but for zip files and not exe files.
Im sorry you cant do simple number reading mine is 15.26.xx yous is 15.10.xx 26 is more than 10 to start with
I remember i installed "Intel HD Graphics Driver v15.26.8.64.2696 WHQL (x64)" and it shows 8.15.10.2696 in Graphics Properties. Also on Intel downloads center it shows 15.26.8.64.2696 is latest.