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

[Abdullah Ramadhan]

The rollback option should work just fine if not just do a system restore and it will be sorted, did you check the drivers it was installing before you ticked them? seems like a driver is conflicting with something and causing the issue, one time i tried auslogics driver updater and a driver there causes my sound to bug out in games and music so i know not to download certain ones.

Yep, I just put all my important files onto a usb stick, and I am going to do a factory restore. I tried rollbacking my drivers, but it is still the same, and my sound is gone, and I tried downloading the sound driver, but still no fix :/

Wish me luck...

 

[Abdullah Ramadhan]

I updated around 50 drivers using that Iobit tool a week ago. Since then whenever I play csgo, my CPU usage is constantly near 100% and so I can't play the game at all. When using firefox and watching movies, there are lag spikes/ stutters. I don't know what it did but I won't recommend a driver updater to someone.

Yeah same :/
You should do a system restore like me

 

[DC47561]

I couldn't agree more. Even Microsoft update messes drivers up from time to time. My old laptop's sound card driver was one big one. I rolled it back to the previous version only to find that it had been automatically updated again.

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Good Luck

 

[Paul123]

Whilst a lot of people say 'download from the manufacturer's site' I'd say its not always obvious where these drivers are on many manufacturers sites, and novice users run the risk of also downloading from sites that pertain to have the drivers but are actually malware sites, or downloading the wrong driver.

Driver update tools (if they are good) ensure that you get the right driver and from the right source, something also novice users might not do. For example, Iobit's Driver Booster ensures only drivers that have passed Microsoft's WHQL tests are downloaded (something that if you download from say Intel's site might not be true as initially they do not), so reducing the chance of incompatibilities. I'd disagree therefore and say for novice user's they do have a use, for more experienced users, commenters are probably right - its better to get from source, but to say they have no value, is I think incorrect. Up-to-date drivers can make a difference, and in some cases fix security and performance issues, so are important, just like updating your windows O/S.

I use Iobit's Driver Booster and have never encountered issues of incompatibility. I use the tool mainly for convenience, it informs me when a newer driver comes out, and saves me having to play 'hunt the driver'. I could do it myself, but why bother when there is a tool to do it for me.

There are a lot of bad driver updates tools out there, as there are a lot of PC optimser tools too, but to say that they are all useless I think is a over generalisation

 

[Deleted member 2913]

I have DriverTalent.

Its helpful sometimes...most of the PC manufacturers website dont update drivers & sometimes not easy to find correct drivers on the manufacturers website.

Win 10 Updates are good & most or all drivers are available through Windows Updates.

DriverTalent shows "stable" & "latest" drivers for critical/important/required stuffs...Stable - Stable & Microsoft's WHQL, Latest - Latest & Microsoft's WHQL.

I tried DriverBooster, it shows many drivers & most no need to update. And compared to DriverTalent, it shows little old drivers for quite a few stuffs.

I only update drivers if & when need arises like any probs & only important stuffs like display, sound, etc

DriverTalent, I kinda use as a reference & try to find the drivers on PC manufacturers or manufacturers website, if I couldn't then may give a try to DriverTalent, yet no need came up.

 

[Rodney74]

I would agree with your assessment...Except for one utility. It's called "Driver Easy" and it is very nice.

I only use it to scan, and then update drivers that are 5-6 years old. I don't do any drivers that are 1 to 24 months.

Do this, with this utility, and I bet you will say with me "No problem".

 

[KGBagent47]

Too late.

I did it a couple of years ago it was complete trash.

 

[HarborFront]

I just installed Iobit Driver Booster v4.2 and it detected 13 outdated device drivers and also installed KC Softwares DUMo and it detected 21 outdated device drivers. So, the latter is better?

 

[tim one]

I just installed Iobit Driver Booster v4.2 and it detected 13 outdated device drivers and also installed KC Softwares DUMo and it detected 21 outdated device drivers. So, the latter is better?

Not necessarily so.
Iobit Driver Booster search for tested WHQL drivers so you have a good reliability level.
I use IDB for a long time and I haven't encountered any problem.

 

[TairikuOkami]

I have tested various driver updaters and I have stayed with Driver Easy. In the free version, you can actually download updates and it is able to find drivers, which are not on laptop's or manufacturer's webpage. It finds the most drivers (on an old laptop 9 vs 1 by iobit's), some other updaters desperately try the same, but they offer bad updates, just to offer something. I have ended up installing Realtek Audio on Creative, which obviously broke it.

 

[Malware Person]

it isn't nessecary to have your drivers updated all the time. if you are a gamer, you want to update your graphic drivers as soon as possible, but for others, there is no need to have the all updated

 

[karthic1998]

Can I use driver pack solution tell me anyone

 

[FrFc1908]

iobit driver booster since day 1 it released , without having any problems! it is a staple in my commonly used softwares

 

[jamescv7]

Can I use driver pack solution tell me anyone

Posted by a member from Superuser .

I have some experience with this program, I used to work at a local repair shop that used this for installing nearly all of their drivers. The program does what it advertises very well, it will install a ton of drivers for you and the program is very simple to use.

I've run the thing through a few different AV / Virus Removal programs and it has turned up clean, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is safe. I have noticed that it changes your OEMINFO properties to advertise itself further, which when working on a client or customers computer, is a very bad thing. For example, if you go to My Computer -> Properties, it will have changed the 'Manufactured and Supported by' tags in Windows Xp, Vista, and 7.

From my experience, it works well, but I don't recommend using it. Like some of the other answers here have said, it requires minimal effort to find and install drivers from a more legitimate source (Manufacturer Website). Also, I believe it is of Russian origin and impossible to find support for.

Tl;dr - It works well for installing drivers., but you probably shouldn't use it. Alters system information without prompting, and that usually isn't a good sign.

 

[frogboy]

As @Trickster stated Driver Booster - The Best Free Nvidia/Intel/Realtek Windows PC Driver Download and Update Software does a good job. Though I would not recommend for novices.

 

[dJim]

it isn't nessecary to have your drivers updated all the time. if you are a gamer, you want to update your graphic drivers as soon as possible, but for others, there is no need to have the all updated

Not really.. im using AMD graphic card.. and i dont update since long time bcs most updates give just some " perfomance" to some games to really usefull if u dont play those games.

 

[brambedkar59]

I have to agree, there is no need to install any driver updating utility on Win10. Most of the drivers are installed automatically by windows update, except the graphics one (for my lappy it usually installs an older version without any other software like radeon settings), which I always download from the OEM's website.
In previous versions of windows xp, 7 & 8, I had to install other drivers as well like BT, Audio, and chipset. But situation nowadays is pretty good.
That being said sometimes these utilities do help in finding an update for problematic drivers like Broadcom Wi-Fi in my case. My go to utilities are 3dchip & Iobit driver booster.

 

[S3cur1ty 3nthu5145t]

Driver updater's are fine to check for updates, but download drivers only from official websites.

One does not need one of these utilities for this. It is not difficult to open device manager, look at your current version, and check the manufacturer's website.

This is what I do, and when needed, I install manually not relying on any application.

Latest drivers are not always better, some will have bugs/issues while the current one you have will be stable and mature. It is a good practice to research comments on those in a rush to install them and finding those issues first hand, to avoid those type pit falls.

 

[jackuars]

One does not need one of these utilities for this. It is not difficult to open device manager, look at your current version, and check the manufacturer's website.

This is what I do, and when needed, I install manually not relying on any application.

This is time consuming and for doing this for every driver on your system, it isn't going to be an easy process. This is where driver updaters comes in handly especially for checking outdated drivers if not for updating the drivers itself (which is subjective).