driver updater

[bitsnbytes]

Is there any real free software that will scan your drivers and upgrade or they all scams

 

[Benchtech]

Welcome to the forums, as I sure many will reiterate as I'm about to please use the search function before asking questions that have already been posted, numerous times.

Driver Genius 2010/11 is what I use....

 

[JW The Computer Guy]

Device Doctor, its free: http://www.devicedoctor.com

 

[gazza]

What a great question, I don't give a rats if the question has been asked a thousand times before, unlike some others on these forums. Please give DriverIdentifier a try http://www.driveridentifier.com/

 

[Kitten Kong]

Another 2 you can use, are driver genius, and driver agent.

 

[commentator8]

I use Device doctor, as mentioned, but be aware that there does seem to be a difference between the portable and installable versions (the installable seems to have a bit more, although the site doesn't say squat about it).

 

[Larry Sabo]

Please give DriverIdentifier a try http://www.driveridentifier.com/

Antivir alerts on http://www.driveridentifier.com/files/driveridentifier_setup.exe as malware, for me. However, WOT gives no warning about the site being a risk, so IDK.

 

[nhicktrush]

Need it too, thanks for mentioning these driver updater too guys..

 

[kevinjhaag]

I've been shopping around for a device driver updater. So far I like Device Doctor. Let us know what you end up using. TTYL.

 

[MobileTechie]

I don't really like updating all drivers automatically since some updates cause problems. These apps are handy for finding missing drivers though.

I don't find Device Doctor to do a particularly great job.

If it's a new install and I need to find drivers then I like using driver packs + Driver Forge. DF can be run automatically and silently. Run it, and 10 mins later all missing drivers have been installed. No need for internet access either since you store the driverpacks on a drive.

 

[FoolishTech]

I don't really like updating all drivers automatically since some updates cause problems.

I agree. I don't understand the hype that seems to exist about keeping drivers "updated" ...

I only ever check for a driver update when there is actual problem related to that specific hardware; there is the possible exception of a gamer system where the potential for performance gains outweigh the potential for the instability that can come with some bleeding edge driver updates.

In fact, when there is a problem, actually I find myself checking as much for OLDER drivers as NEWER ones.

 

[Elemdee]

I agree. I don't understand the hype that seems to exist about keeping drivers "updated" ...

I only ever check for a driver update when there is actual problem related to that specific hardware; there is the possible exception of a gamer system where the potential for performance gains outweigh the potential for the instability that can come with some bleeding edge driver updates.

In fact, when there is a problem, actually I find myself checking as much for OLDER drivers as NEWER ones.

I agree with this!




Filler

 

[sys-eng]

please share your secret

FoolishTech & Elemdee:

If a driver is causing a 20% degradation in performance but not generating an error code, how do you determine that the old driver is the problem?

 

[TechLady]

Forgive me, this is a really old thread but I just tried out Device Doctor and my god it tried to install a ginormous amount of crapware with it. I don't think I'll be touching it again.

 

[johnrobert]

Yes it’s come to that

I was looking for a driver just yesterday all the sites wanted me to install there download managers first, file name was disguised as a download manager, or install a load of crapware
Nowhere could I just download the file.

 

[TechLady]

Okay so for an update to this thread, if anybody knows of any driver update checkers that don't do any of the sneaky stuff above, please let us know!

Seriously, the crapware that came with Device Doctor was just astounding; made it almost unusable it was so much work to avoid installing the "extras." Even then one still snuck through

 

[rsarceno]

I agree. I don't understand the hype that seems to exist about keeping drivers "updated" ...

Any chance of adding this option to D7. Maybe don't check for all devices, just devices with non working driver.

 

[sys-eng]

Okay so for an update to this thread, if anybody knows of any driver update checkers that don't do any of the sneaky stuff above, please let us know!

Seriously, the crapware that came with Device Doctor was just astounding; made it almost unusable it was so much work to avoid installing the "extras." Even then one still snuck through

DriverMax gets a lot of good reviews. I prefer to update one drive at a time then reboot. If you update several together then the system does not work right, you may have more trouble identifying the culprit.

 

[shamrin]

I've used Driver Pack Solution to pretty good effect. I'm using an old version (11.8) because when I tried 12.x it seemed more aggressive with the crapware (they are now on version 13). In 11.8 at least, it's a single click to keep it from loading you up with (Russian versions) of a lot of stuff you don't want.

 

[MobileTechie]

For finding a few drivers these days I use Driver Easy for which I've paid the technicians licence - you get key which you can use multiple times for a fixed price. On the whole it works pretty well.

The next best, and free, alternative I've found is Slim Drivers.