Advice Request Never Download a Driver-Updating Utility; They’re Worse Than Useless

[stefanos]

We need to understand that companies are playing games among them. Especially when you have a antivirus company you play better. I must now remove malwarebytes because hitman pro detected it fakeAV. Hitman pro is the one of best second scaner. I have to see the results seriously. Is not FP

 

[TairikuOkami]

manual check and install driver is much better than these driver booster or driver updating utility.

I mostly install drivers manually, but in order to find them, I need a driver updater, since drivers are well hidden on the internet, especially the latest versions, but once you get the version number, you can download them anywhere, WHQL drivers even directly from Microsoft webpage.

 

[Kyle_Katarn]

A good option is to use DUMo, which "notifies" about update but keep YOU in control of what you decide to download/install ... or not

I'm the lead dev of DUMo. KC Softwares

 

[Burrito]

I just hit triple digits with Driver Booster on an older computer.

 

[Threadripper]

View attachment 220383

I just hit triple digits with Driver Booster on an older computer.

Is all going well?

Pretty sure I installed Driver Booster just to see what it finds and it wanted to replace some Microsoft storage controllers with OEM ones, not sure if I still should

 

[Burrito]

Is all going well?

Pretty sure I installed Driver Booster just to see what it finds and it wanted to replace some Microsoft storage controllers with OEM ones, not sure if I still should

It is.

But...

Everybody should use caution with driver updaters. I've had a few bad experiences. DriverMax really did me in.. and a few others were going to if I had not checked out the drivers they selected. There is plenty of discussion here at MT on these topics.

And IOBit is kind of a scummy company. They try to trick you into clicking the wrong button to update to pro... and other things. There is a reason that Malwarebytes classifies them as a PUP.

As a generalization, I don't use driver updaters on my newer computers. I let Windows/Intel... handle it, or I manually do it.

On older computers, it's pretty handy. And I would not use any other than Driver Booster -- as they have never given me an incorrect driver.

@roger_m is an MT expert on driver updaters.

Oh, but holy crapoli, I better hurry. I can get free Driver Booster Pro 7 if I'm one of the last 9 to sign up!

For clarity -- that is sarcasm.

 

[oldschool]

@roger_m is an MT expert on driver updaters.

Indeed!

 

[codswollip]

I installed Driver Booster just to see what it finds and it wanted to replace some Microsoft storage controllers with OEM ones, not sure if I still should

Are you aware of a problem with your storage controllers?

I better hurry. I can get free Driver Booster Pro 7 if I'm one of the last 9 to sign up!

Look what you've done...

 

[stefanos]

Is all going well?

Pretty sure I installed Driver Booster just to see what it finds and it wanted to replace some Microsoft storage controllers with OEM ones, not sure if I still should

More of 10 years on my system. Never i had one problem .

 

[oldschool]

View attachment 220385

Do you use it on your W10 machine? or only the 8.1?

 

[bribon77]

I try to update manually .. But sometimes in old machines it is difficult to find drivers, so I use Driver Easy, not bad at all.

 

[stefanos]

Do you use it on your W10 machine? or only the 8.1?

This year i use windows 10 1903. I trust this program very much. If driver booster will have drivers for update, i install the drivers without any control

 

[dinosaur07]

I do not agree with the statement that this kind of software is useless. It helped me a lot Diver Genius for instance to find and update all my drivers for my laptop and for some hardware drivers this software found exactly what was needed for that specific hardware so I would say that I'm more than happy to use this specific software for more than 4 years.

 

[roger_m]

Pretty sure I installed Driver Booster just to see what it finds and it wanted to replace some Microsoft storage controllers with OEM ones, not sure if I still should

The driver it wants to replace, is most likely a generic driver and the OEM one will be the right one for the device. Sometimes you will get a very noticeable boost in disk performance after updating to the OEM driver.

Quite often, when do you a clean install, or upgrade to a new version of Windows, some of the drivers installed by Windows will be generic ones. For example, "High Definition Audio Device" instead of the OEM audio drivers. While the generic drivers should work, I think it's better to have the OEM ones.

 

[Venustus]

This is one of the "better" update utilities:

https://sdi-tool.org/download/

 

[Digmor Crusher]

My theory is that if its not broken don't touch it, I never update my drivers unless there is an issue, except perhaps only for my video card. Windows update may update the occasional driver and thats fine, however, I have never seen any difference in updating any driver. Your mileage may vary.

 

[jackuars]

My theory is that if its not broken don't touch it, I never update my drivers unless there is an issue, except perhaps only for my video card. Windows update may update the occasional driver and thats fine, however, I have never seen any difference in updating any driver. Your mileage may vary.

This statement is all about Performance vs Usability. Not touching the drivers unless it's broken accounts for preference to Usability and updating your drivers when they are available accounts for preference to Performance.

For me I choose Performance, and hence I update my drivers regularly

 

[codswollip]

I try to update manually .. But sometimes in old machines it is difficult to find drivers, so I use Driver Easy, not bad at all.

Yes, Driver Easy is my preferred tool when I must do this. I use DE's download, then manually update via Device Manager.

 

[plat]

Maybe if you stick with a respected, mainstream software, it could really help you out. Or in my case, make a conundrum, I don't know. Here is DUMo's output, yikes! And then Intel--wth? Intel Management Engine--I thought I nuked it, and yes, there's a big update available. Check out Intel's result--lol. I focused only on NVIDIA and chipset/SSD following clean install. OK, something to explore. So, nowadays, maybe it's not a bad idea to run this type of utility, you don't have to apply anything and respected makers of these things want your business, not to harm you. Read the installer before clicking "Accept."

Spoiler

Spoiler

Edit: Ended up disabling IME in Device Manager as there was no entry for it in the BIOS. Credit this thread and DUMo with drawing my attention to this hidden (to me) vulnerability. :emoji_ok_hand:

 

[ForgottenSeer 77591]

If you install more than one driver at a time its a pain if you run into problems.This is why I stopped using any driver update software and let Windows Update do its thing even if the drivers are a little old.