- Oct 31, 2014
- 1,712
Never Download a Driver-Updating Utility; They’re Worse Than Useless
- Thread starter Petrovic
- Start date
Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.
- May 16, 2018
- 1,363
I have used them all.Its just placebo like registry cleaners.I have a licence to Registry First Aid but hardly use it.All these types of programs find things wrong because if they didn't users would not use them.If you could go 10 years on Windows 10 without having to reinstall maybe reg cleaners would work but its not happening.I bought the licence out of curiosity not because I thought it would help performance.
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
My results after using Driver Booster on a perfectly working PC, attempting to use Reflect Image - I was able to image back a day so no problem using external media, not sure if it messed other programs up or not, the PC ran worse after updating drivers & IOBIT installed a none compatible NVIDIA driver too - After messing with it for a while I wasn't able to restore the old working driver & without an image it would have been an re-install - Just my experience after an experiment?
Edited & sorry for messing attached SS up
Edited & sorry for messing attached SS up
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- Oct 31, 2014
- 1,712
- Oct 31, 2014
- 1,712
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
I did this from the point of view of an average user, I did an image before I installed IOBIT, I did attempt to remedy the situation using the program & restore the SATA driver, as an average user would. I did not succeed - I tried this program twice, a few days ago too - I had the same results. I make no point other than on this really well working PC things got worse so for me Booster failed big time. Others have a different point of view, of course at any time I could have imaged back within a few mins.
Of course I'm fine now as I'm back before I used IOBIT, I suppose my point is updating your drivers is not risk free & you may not be able to restore your system drivers using the program (i wasn't) Most users do not have 6 images for this month, which I have most have none. Still just my experience twice just for fun
(I'm not sure what happened with the Screen-Shot)
Of course I'm fine now as I'm back before I used IOBIT, I suppose my point is updating your drivers is not risk free & you may not be able to restore your system drivers using the program (i wasn't) Most users do not have 6 images for this month, which I have most have none. Still just my experience twice just for fun
(I'm not sure what happened with the Screen-Shot)
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You should have been able to get your system running again with System Restore. By default, Driver Booster creates a restore point before installing drivers. If System Restore is disabled (as is sometimes the case when installing or upgrading to Windows 10), it will ask you if you want it to enable it. Or, if you were able to boot into Safe Mode, or you boosted from a Windows ISO, you could have deleted the driver that was causing the blue screen.
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
I have to say here I don't use system restore as on any PC I've ever sorted the next time it works in a critical situation will be the first - Trying Booster was an experiment that's all, nothing more. I just wanted to see what the results of using this (a driver updater on 10) program on a very stable & fast PC were. I installed it twice from a OK system, the results were the same it messed the SATA driver up & installed an incorrect display driver, thereby causing the Reflect Image PE to fail, I assume other programs were affected but that's conjecture.
The restore in the program did not remedy the situation - I don't need solutions, I was running it as a person who may have limited computer skills as these programs are marketed - If I had been such a person the situation could have been difficult? I had hoped the PC would have ran better not much worse I have to say, & my advice is if things are OK & you are not a gamer leave things alone.
That was my experience, if things had improved I would have said - I'm not an expert but have 25 years experience of using / building / maintaining PC's. For me it messed just this PC up - if this had been once of my friends I would have gotten a phone call to go & put it right. Few people I know can boot into safe mode, my point of view as a final comment is: I installed the program twice & had issues so there can be risks, beware?
The restore in the program did not remedy the situation - I don't need solutions, I was running it as a person who may have limited computer skills as these programs are marketed - If I had been such a person the situation could have been difficult? I had hoped the PC would have ran better not much worse I have to say, & my advice is if things are OK & you are not a gamer leave things alone.
That was my experience, if things had improved I would have said - I'm not an expert but have 25 years experience of using / building / maintaining PC's. For me it messed just this PC up - if this had been once of my friends I would have gotten a phone call to go & put it right. Few people I know can boot into safe mode, my point of view as a final comment is: I installed the program twice & had issues so there can be risks, beware?
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To be fair system restore doesn't work properly, always leaves garbage behind not to mention it fails to properly recover all the files and configurations, system restore is as the name says, focused on the system not on third-party software.
I personally only use Driver Utilities at work, on old computers with unknown/ancient hardware that lack an official page to get the drivers (it helps a lot).
Beyond that, I install and update all the drivers manually (and you should update them, for performance, compatibility and even security fixes).
- Jan 29, 2017
- 1,201
Going OT here... but read up more on this. From what I understand disabling IME does not prevent PC compromise. What disabling does is prevents you from being notified when I connection is being made. Unless your OEM provides a tool to remove IME and close its backdoor, you would be better off with IME enabled, so that you will be notified when attempts to backdoor your PC occurs.
Do you own follow-up to convince yourself. DUMo is very risky as it ignores machine architecture AFAIK.
- Aug 5, 2012
- 577
I would personally avoid any IObit product and especially Driver Booster.
- Aug 5, 2012
- 577
This is a consequence of updating the drivers with Driver Booster?
Telos: thank you very much for making the point about the Intel Management Engine. In this case, there was nothing related to it in BIOS, so disabling in Device Manager seemed like a temporary stop-gap. The Intel service is no longer showing up in Services.msc and Task Manager but no matter, it needs further investigation. Absolutely will follow up on this, I sort of forgot about it.
As for DUMo or any driver updater, I do a scan only. I never use the utility to update for me. When DUMo claimed there were chipset updates available, there were actually none specifically for my machine via Intel's website. I don't take risks when it comes to hardware. If my device throws no warnings in Event Viewer, there are no vulnerabilities reported for the current drivers ,and the machine runs fine, I don't pursue it. NVIDIA, I have to play with oftentimes but that's it. Mind you, I speak for myself cuz many use this software successfully. It can be very convenient.
Edit: After running an Intel tool for the IME to see if the backdoor vulnerability was still there, this was the outcome:
Does anyone remember when this disclosure about Intel's Management Engine was first made? That, Sprectre, Meltdown, it's something to be vigilant about, for sure.
As for DUMo or any driver updater, I do a scan only. I never use the utility to update for me. When DUMo claimed there were chipset updates available, there were actually none specifically for my machine via Intel's website. I don't take risks when it comes to hardware. If my device throws no warnings in Event Viewer, there are no vulnerabilities reported for the current drivers ,and the machine runs fine, I don't pursue it. NVIDIA, I have to play with oftentimes but that's it. Mind you, I speak for myself cuz many use this software successfully. It can be very convenient.
Edit: After running an Intel tool for the IME to see if the backdoor vulnerability was still there, this was the outcome:
Does anyone remember when this disclosure about Intel's Management Engine was first made? That, Sprectre, Meltdown, it's something to be vigilant about, for sure.
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I get most of my software fix in Virtual Box.When it breaks I just delete it.Done!
Yes, but I prefer driver update software that downloads and installs the drivers for me.
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
For me on this PC with two separate installs, yes, I haven't used it on any other & not inclined to try? Though of course as always we often have different results & I fully respect that.
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