What is a Driver Manager?

Now and then I get a pop up that tells me that Driver Manager has determined that I need to update some drivers. This only happens to my lap top. OS is W7.

What is the DM and is it legit or just a way to get info or money?

Thanks,
Jerry

 

Is this the program?

 

I uninstalled it, but I am pretty sure that is the program. One time I clicked on it and was taken to the site where I would have had to pay.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

I just installed Driver Manager and it is not a scam it is a rebranded version Driver Detective. Driver Detective is a reasonably good driver update software, but I do have an issue with the large amount of affiliate advertising there was a few years back, with the number of million drivers in their database being claimed varied greatly between different advertisers.

Since there is some very good free driver update software, and even a free limited version of Driver Detective there's really no need to pay for this.

 

Thanks, Roger.
I like the idea of such a program, and with your info I am going to look into it further, especially a good free version.
Regards,
Jerry

 

in my experience, these driver update managers tend to cause more trouble than they solve.
why not simply get them yourself manually, like nvidia updates, or wait for Windows Updates to list them.

 

Driver update software makes it easier to update drivers, e.g. I just updated some drivers and it took just one mouse click to download and install all found driver updates and backup the current drivers before updating them.

Drivers from Windows Update are usually outdated.

 

hi
it's off topic
but is there a free alternative? to find the best update drivers?

thanks

 

Free Driver Scout works pretty well, just be sure to uncheck the option to install extra software on the first screen, and decline the offer on the second screen.

It installs most drivers automatically.

 

This idea of "one click driver updating" sounds good, but the truth is that sometimes a newer driver improves functionality and sometimes it doesn't. It's a good idea to at least look at the changelog for a new driver before deciding to update and also know how to "roll back" an update if the hardware doesn't work properly afterward (bigger problems may require System Restore so make sure you have a restore point). Drivers from Windows Update may sometimes be older, but they may also be WHQL certified meaning that they are more likely to be reliable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHQL_Testing

Driver updates, unlike application updates, do not typically improve security. They are only meant to fix bugs, improve compatibility, and in the case of video cards improve performance a little.

 

Although I have the latest drivers, I find it amusing that Windows Update is still offering the earlier version of two of them. For now, I've hidden those particular updates.

 

Sometimes they do, take for example: Nvidia releases driver update to fix security exploit.