Windows 7: Best way to update drivers - DriverTuner?

Hi all,



Uninstalled and reinstalled my Radeon graphics card driver and during this I downloaded the DriverTuner "free" programme. It detected (surprise, surprise) over 30 out of date drivers.

Has anyone used this - is it worth registering for?

Interestingly I ran it after I reinstalled my graphics driver and it's recognised it but says there are problems still. This is interesting as I've been having the occasional crash with it (hence the uninstall/reinstall of it)

As ever, any advice welcome.

scamander

IMO, programs such as these are snake oil ... pure and simple ... I (and most other users here) update my drivers from either Windows Update, and the support sites of your equipment!

You can use the free software called Driver Sweeper for the same reason.
http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/Dr...Installer.html

Cheers!

Tews,

thanks very much - I thought so. I get how you can update graphics card drivers, but howabout other ones I may not be aware of?

Reason being is that I got a few come up that I don't understand (e.g PCI standard host CPU Bridge). There are a number like this.

It sounded like snake oil, but at the same time I'd like to know what drivers I should be updating.

thanks for the advice though!!

Personal opinion, FWIW: When it comes to drivers, if it ain't broke don't fix it. If you absolutely feel the need to update drivers that are working fine, I'd go to the manufacturer's website rather than relying on a 3rd party site like DriverTuner. Not to say they're no good, just that the manufacturer should have the latest and best driver(s) available. If you do replace any drivers I'd recommend creating a restore point in case there are subsequent problems. Better still, a system image.

Speedgamer,

cheers for that - would you reccommend the PC Speed up programme that's offered alongside it? I've done a free scan with it and it seems problems abound!

Should I just ignore it and uninstall PC Speed Up?

You should use no utilities like that, uninstall it now and don't install any software in the future that is said to speed up the comuter.

And only use driver sweeper to delete old drivers when no drivers are installed eg. u can use it if you uninstall ati drivers and you use it when nothing is installed OR if you change from ati to nvidia you can clean up the left-over driver pieces

I tried this DriverTuner just to see how accurate it was. The result: It identifies a few outdated drivers. Mostly, it identifies current up to date drivers as being outdated and suggests installing the same or older drivers and drivers that are not compatible (ie 32 bit drivers for 64 bit system). It also identifies drivers for non-existent hardware. Totally a POS.

If you do a search for this, you'll find several glowing reviews on fake review sites.

These programs are XPired-era relics. Windows 7 is the authority on its own drivers with most of them in the installer or quickly updated via optional Windows Updates.

Only in rare cases with the oldest hardware will a program like DriverMax come up with a driver which can't be found because it was long forgotten and even overlooked by google. This was the case recently where I installed DM for the first time in Windows 7 and it found a Vista display driver for an old Dell Inspiron C540 that had plagued it's owner. It's the only case I can think of where DriverMax (so useful in XP) has actually found something helpful for Windows 7. Most of these programs will screw up your Windows 7 drivers requiring reinstall.

I bought DriverTuner and my experience is that it is a POS. I requested a refund in the less than the 60 day guarantee period and have asked my credit card company to with hold payment. I have emailed the seller at least 3 times requesting a credit to my card and have only gotten BS replies from them. Don't waste your time or money. You can use the free version of DriverMax and get fairly satisfactory results. It does sometimes recommend a newer driver that does not work, but it also sets up restore points before it updates so if something doesn't work you can roll it back to where it was or go back to a restore point if you have to. Running Win XP Pro V2002 SP3