Updating drivers with programs  

Who has never experienced a problem with your computer and had to format it, and by the time you start Windows saw that did not have any drivers installed, and worse, that did not have the installation CD's, I was one who has passed so many times, but nothing simpler than looking at the site of the manufacturers, correct?
But seek driver by driver is a little tiring, so why not use a program that does all this for us? I'll show you two FREE programs that search the internet for drivers, the DeviceDoctor and DriverEasy the two are very simple to use.

Device Doctor:

Its interface is very simple as you can see to work just click the BEGIN SCAN it will crawl the Internet behind your drivers:



After finding it lists the drivers to be downloaded and installed:



Simple, no?

Driver Easy

It has a prettier interface than the competitor, and is far more effective to search for drivers, to work just click on SCAN NOW:



It will scan your drivers for outdated or not installed:



When you find the drivers you can download all at once, or download one by one:



Remember that, if the programs meet the BIOS as outdated, MUST NOT UPDATE, stay tuned to this.

As we all now know how to update your drivers easily, leave here one more tip for those who do not want to be looking for, either by site or by programs, is doing a backup of all drivers.
Use Driver Max

Links:

http://www.devicedoctor.com/
http://www.drivereasy.com/
http://www.drivermax.com/

Good Thread!

There should be a caveat with these programs. Sometimes they can get it wrong. Here are the last three reviews on CNET by users:

Device Doctor - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

• "hit and miss"
  by stu54 on May 29, 2010
  Pros: small, light,quick,easy to use and good with older pc's.
  Cons: gets a lot wrong and doesn't find much if running windows 7
  Summary: This program seems to work well on older machines and can find the odd driver that you can't find on the web.
  It does get a lot wrong though and it crashed my nvidia graphics card.
  Its interface is simple but it always flags up older versions of drivers so it can be confusing sometimes.
  Scan times are quick and its a small program that installs and removes itself with no problems.
  Doesn't do much for windows 7 that MS already does and is better suited if running XP.
  That said its free and worth a go if you know what you are looking for..
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• 3 stars
  1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
  Version: Device Doctor 1.0.0.1
  "sort of works"
  by boomboom08060 on May 28, 2010
  Pros: identifies driver updates needed and makes them available via mirrorsite
  Cons: after multiple downloads the updater is still identifying the same updates as still needed...DUH!
  Summary: It's OK...It's free.
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• 1 stars
  Version: Device Doctor 1.0.0.1
  "Didn't work for me"
  by markeconger on May 23, 2010
  Pros: None that I saw
  Cons: I downloaded a driver for my mouse that made it work very erratically.
  Summary: I tried five system restores but none of them worked. I finally had to go to device manager and do a driver rollback to get my mouse to work properly.
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I would strongly discourage anyone from using any automated program such as this.
It really is a bad idea & practice IMHO.

The best, foolproof way is to go directly to the manufacturer for your drivers.
This way, you can choose 32 or 64 bit, as well as a version designed specifically for your version of the OS.

Also, in such cases as a GPU driver, you can choose which one you want. newest or a an older version, depending what works best.

These programs can make mistakes, and you do not always know what you're getting.

As far as the, "I have any idea what hardware I have", thats what apps like Speccy are for. Learn what hardware you have, and go directly to the Source for drivers.

Bottom line, the manufacturer itself will know best what the most current driver is, and which will work for your setup far better than any automated tool.

I agree with Lemur and Wishmaster on this, these types of programs can cause the inexperienced more trouble than learning how to find the manufacturer's drivers site.

It is best to find the proper site and get the correct driver for your OS.

This is just one of the things you have to learn to do when you build your own system.

OEMs will do this for you, though sometimes you might need to do it yourself.

As long as I've been a member going to the manufacturers site has always been the prefered suggested method.
Followed by a warning to stay away from third party apps.
1. Because most of them will do a trial which will show you hardware needing updates and then direct you to a page to get your hard earned money to pay to for them.
2. Their unreliable in the way 98% of all (free/trial) spyware/malware and virus detection companies engage in a luring you into thinking you have tons of hits that need to be cleaned then will clean a few and once again send you to pay for the program in order to have them removed.

IMO most of these companies software is written to find as many drivers or problems to entice you to pay for their services.

In the case of a driver update program it may actually find drivers that need updating but it won't necessarily update it to the latest, which you could only find out by going to the original hardware manufacturers site. Then and only then will you know the latest update,usually with the date it was updated and release notes as to why it was updated,

Going to the manufacturer maybe the only way to find out what OS the latest driver was made for and if you may need to use compatibility mode to install it
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@Astromech I'm sure you put some time into finding these free programs which any time spent trying to help others is always appreciated. So please don't take my post as a personal attack. Thanks Fabe