What driver tools do you guys use??
- Thread starter a03dugga
- Start date
When i see the term "driver tools" I just think of shady websites trying to peddle adware infested crap!
I don't and never will use any such tool, as I've never had any issues with drivers either installed by Win7 or ones I've simply downloaded off the manufacturers site.
I don't and never will use any such tool, as I've never had any issues with drivers either installed by Win7 or ones I've simply downloaded off the manufacturers site.
Me also, it is not essential to upgrade drivers unless you have hardware issues. If it is not broken don't fix it. If it is, go to your hardware vendors main site and download from there.
Soldato
- Joined
- 16 Jan 2003
- Posts
- 10,857
- Location
- Nottingham
I always check www.station-drivers.com, they always have the newest drivers, often a lot newer than the manufacturers websites, the only exception being Nvidia/AMD drivers.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 13,057
- Location
- Sunny Stafford
I use 'Half Done', which identifies parts of the computer that otherwise shows up as unknown in Windows Device Manager. Very good tool for an IT technician.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Dec 2009
- Posts
- 3,297
- Location
- Earth
Have never used these driver tools, always update manually or use those offered by MS WHQL. Working in IT Support some of these tools have caused more problems than helping out.
Associate
- Joined
- 16 Jun 2007
- Posts
- 279
- Location
- mysterious archipelago
never use them as above just allow windows to get them on 7 or of manufacturer website
Thinking back to my last windows installation the only drivers I needed were the graphics and audio drivers. Once I got them from the official site I was all set. Pretty sure I never installed any kind of chipset drivers and I've never bothered with mouse, keyboard monitor or other motherboard drivers.
Windows Update did update my onboard LAN driver recently though.
I do however update the graphics driver following a big game release. E.g. The latest ATI drivers allegedly improve Skyrim.
Windows Update did update my onboard LAN driver recently though.
I do however update the graphics driver following a big game release. E.g. The latest ATI drivers allegedly improve Skyrim.
Soldato
- Joined
- 7 Mar 2005
- Posts
- 19,612
- Location
- LU7
Ditto. Years ago in my XP days I did try out the trial version of a program like this. I ditched it when it wanted me to pay to actually have the drivers downloaded.
As has been said by others Windows 7 does an excellent job in finding the right drivers online for you and installing them.
At work if I've got an old XP computer to get working again or I need some obscure drivers for it I tend to look in the Device Manager for any clues as to the name or manufacturer of the device then go hunting for their site. If its really tough I use Speccy to give me more info that I can then google like product numbers etc.
So Vista/W7 & 8 will do this for you, with XP and older you'll just have to google them. Takes a while but I'd trust my googlin' skills over an unreputable, unknown program that's 'automatic'.
Same, I use "Unknown Devices" too. Get the name of the offending hardware and off to the manufacturers site.
As above, I mostly just use mobo drivers and see what Windows updates has for them. Never had any issues apart from the odd bad GPU driver.