How to use Driver Genius - excellent completely free driver updater software

Driver Genius is one of the best, if not the best driver update software currently available. There are actually two programs called Driver Genius, while you have to pay for one, the one I'm talking about comes from China and is completely free - with one major drawback - it's in Chinese.

I've started this thread to provide instructions on how to use Driver Genius, as it really is an excellent program and I prefer it even to driver update software I've paid for. It's not a new program - it has been around for 14 years making it quite possibly the first software of its kind, but it would seem that it's pretty much unheard of outside of China.

There is also a paid program with the same name - this is a completely different program.

You can download it from www.drivergenius.com


As you can see from the above picture there are three versions available for download. You will usually want to select the middle download. If you need to install drivers on a computer with missing network drivers, then download the bottom one as it actually includes network drivers, and can install any missing network drivers, enabling you to get on the internet - a really nice feature.

When installing Driver Genius, you should uncheck everything except for the option to run Driver Genius on the final screen. By uncecking everyting, no start menu shoercuts will be created - but this is a good thing as it creates them with Chinese text. A shortcut can be made manually later, so don't worry.

Once Driver Genius launches it will does a scan for updated and missing drivers by itself.


As you can see in the above picture, two driver updates have been found.

To update the drivers, you just have to click on the button to the right of and slightly above the first update.


On the above screen you will see I have deslected the bottom update. You should always do the same as it is not actually a driver update. When it is checked, it downloads and installs the new 2013 version of Kingsoft antivirus - which will be of no use since it's in Chinese only.

You can also uncheck any drivers you don't want to download.

To download and install the available drivers, press the button with text ending in (N), and then do the same on the next screen.

Now Driver Genius will go about download and installing all the drivers. Multiple drivers are download at once to speed up the download process. Once a driver has finished downloading, the installer for the driver will be launched (and the other drivers will continue to download).

After a driver is installed be sure to select not to reboot if prompted to do so. This will let Driver Genius continue download and installing all the drivers. When this is done you can reboot if you you prompted to reboot after installing any drivers. (If you were given no prompts about rebooting - then none of the drivers required a reboot to start working, and you don't need to reboot).

If you encounter any problems with downloading the drivers and the downloads stop e.g. due to a network driver being updated, just press the (C) button. you will be returned to the main Driver Genius screen where another scan will be run, after which you can start the update process again.


When you want to launch Driver Genius again you can find it in either C:\Program Files\MyDrivers\DriverGenius2012 or C:\Program Files (x86)\MyDrivers\DriverGenius2012 (for 64 bit versions of Windows), and the program file is DriverGenius.exe


If you have any questions let me know, and I will try to help

 

Thank you roger_m, that makes things a lot easier!

Do you know how to use other functions such as backup?

Also, something I've been wondering: do you know if the other Driver Genius from driver-soft.com has anything to do with this one? Apparently both come from China.

 

Hi roger m,
Did you try ma-config by any chance?
If so any observations you would care to share please.
Thanks.

 

I have tried it and it works really well - it has only ofound compatible driver downloads so far. However I run Driver Genius first as it downloads the drivers itself, and then starts installing them as soon as they are downloaded.

 

Thank you roger m.