Best Driver Updaters

Looking for a good driver updater for my system. Any suggestions?

 

The only ones you should trust is Windows, your computer manufacturer, and the chipset manufacturer. Although the last option provides more up-to-date drivers, they're not guaranteed to work with your hardware configuration.

None of those third-party updaters should ever be trusted on something as important as your hardware drivers, only maybe backups. Plus, most drivers (excluding a few like video) don't need to be updated if they're not broken, unless you need the new features.

 

Hardware drivers seldom need to be updated. Usually the ones you get from the PC manufacturer are good for the life of your computer.

 

Depends how you define "need"

Do you mean the original ones as suplied without updates or including updates from OEM ?

In my experience there have been a lot of driver updates from my OEM (either HP or Lenovo) over the years and most have fixed things that have not directly affected me; on average I need one or two driver updates a year per machine to fix issues I am suffering in Windows.

Cheers, Nick

 

My-Config does a good job of finding driver updates and is free.

Driver Genius is one of the best driver update programs, but is in Chinese (there's an English Drive Genius but is from a different publisher and is not free). I did post instructions on how to use it here since it is in Chinese, but the latest version has changed the interface, so my instructions need to be updated.

If you want to spend money, Advanced Driver Updater works very well, and has automated driver installation and backup.

These are some of the best driver update programs, and I've used pretty much all driver update software there is.

 

I normally go to the chip vendor (Intel) or the manufacturer of the particular hardware for updates. The PC vendors site (Dell, HP) often has not had the best or most recent updates. For the most part, I update the drivers when I install and configure the OS and have had no need to update again.

Another thing to watch for, if you're using an OS that's at or near the end of its supported life, like XP is now, the most recent driver or chipset is not always the best, especially if it also covers more recent operating systems. I've run into this twice, once with the chipset and once with display drivers. The version before the most recent worked the best. In the case of the video driver, using one that's slightly older gave me more resolution choices and a better behaved display. Don't be afraid to back up a few versions. The newest is not always the best, something Windows has repeatedly demonstrated over the years.

 

Personally, I would never use any driver updater. The only reason to update a driver is when a piece of hardware is not working right. In most cases, that is easily checked on the device manager. The only time recently that I had a hardware issue that needed a new driver that didn't show up in the device manager was some real subtle disk errors in Xp when I cloned a system from a PATA laptop to an AHCI SATA laptop. I had to get the Intel AHCI driver to fix that and it took one download from the Intel site. I always try to get the right driver from the manufacturer's website if possible. I really wouldn't trust a driver updater to find the right driver for a problem like that. A lot of the driver updaters are loaded with adware and are marketed in a really deceptive manner.

 

I would have to agree with you to a certain extent as i have had problems in the past.

Depending what you use the computer for then a driver update maybe beneficial.(graphics drivers etc.)

 

This is actually very rare.

No argument from me on this one.

 

https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

 

The problem with driver updating software is it's typically marketed as solving a problem that doesn't exist. Drivers are rarely the cause of problems with the system and updating them is rarely what is needed when you're having problems. That said driver updating software can be useful as a way to receive notifications that new drivers are available for your hardware. Then you can check them out to see if a particular new driver offers any advantage over the current one. Note that Windows Update will often notify that new drivers are available and they are generally safe (HQL certified).

 

Agree. I never had need to pdate my driver, neither in XP nor in Seven. On the contrary, when updating graphic card driver for test often gave me issues.

 

This is true. It's sad to see that most paid driver update software will not updated any drivers until you purchase the software, and that the benefits of updating drivers are often greatly exaggerated, e.g. saying if your computer is running slowly, updating the drivers will fix that.

The problem is that there often are not change logs which details what benefits or changes new drivers offer. The driver update software on my Thinkpads does detail that, but in general new driver updates don't come with change logs.

Yes, but drivers obtained from Windows Update are usually not the latest version.

Having said that, driver support gets better with each Windows release, and with Windows 7 and 8 a lot of hardware is supported via Windows and Windows Update - but usually the drivers are outdated. But, even so - at least you can get hardware working without the need to download and install drivers yourself.

 

I should have added/recommended that after learning of a new driver it's good to go to the manufacturer's website where there's the best chance of finding a changelog (of course there still might not be one).

True, drivers via Windows Update are convenient and usually safe, but typically not the latest.

I expect you know this, but for the record driver updates sometimes fail and result in disabled hardware. That can be especially problematic with the display adapter. It's a good idea to create a restore point immediately prior to a driver update. You may also need to know how to boot into SAFE mode to access System Restore.

 

Often this is none on the manufacture's website.

Under Windows 7 and later and I guess Vista too, you can go into device manager and rollback to the previous driver - there's no need to use System Restore. In theory you can do this in XP too, but sometimes the options to rollback is not there.

 

+ 1 for Slim Drivers

 

True, using the roll-back option is quick and easy as long as the system boots - it's rare but there can be boot problems with the display driver Creating a restore point is just cheap insurance.

 

DriverPack Solution is free (GNU GPL license) and it works: http://drp.su/

 

Yes, it is good to have a restore point too in case of major issues.

 

HI

I am using at this moment Driver Magician and it works

Latest Realtek High Definition Audio here

-http://www.driverreals.com/realtekdriversdownload/Vista_Win7_Win8_R271.zip-

 

Actually it's better to download from the Realtek website as you can download just the required version (32 or 64 bit) as an exe not a zip file.

 

Windows Update for your Operating system - OEM for everything else. I've never seen any redeeming quality or reliability in using a third-party website to determine what my PC needs or doesn't.

 

Hi roger,
Have you experienced any issues with my-config at all.
I may take a look at this one.

Thanks.

 

None so far. But I have not used it a lot.