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

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stefanos

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Oct 31, 2014
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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

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May 13, 2017
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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.
 

Burrito

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1566068948848.png


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

Burrito

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May 16, 2018
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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 :unsure:

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.

1566070421192.png


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.
 

codswollip

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Jan 29, 2017
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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...
R8UJwKD.png
 
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dinosaur07

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Aug 5, 2012
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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

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Dec 4, 2014
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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 :unsure:
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.
 

Digmor Crusher

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Jan 27, 2018
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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

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Jul 2, 2014
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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
 

plat

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Sep 13, 2018
1,793
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. :mad: 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."

dumo.PNG

intel driver.PNG

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:
 
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