Windows Driver Updates

Martin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:57:35 +0000

One would think that there should be at least some free working tools for the Windows operating system that allow users to scan if drivers installed on the computer system are up to date or need updating. A user searching for terms like Windows driver updates or driver updates will most likely be disappointed as the top spots are held by commercial products that sometimes promise a free scan but require registration and purchase before the drivers can be downloaded. There is not really a lot of choice in the free sector which could be explained by the sheer volume of hardware devices and drivers which require a huge database in the backend that gets updated hundreds of times a day. Probably to much work for a group of individuals but excellent for a community project.

Anyway, some free programs to update Windows drivers exist. We have reviewed Driver Max in the past. The application has made some leaps version wise. It can not only be used to scan for Windows driver updates but also to identify unknown hardware or to perform device driver backups. A click on the check for driver updates button in the updates and identification category will start the scan of the computer system’s hardware.

The results will be displayed on the website of the software developer in table form listing the name of the device as well as the installed version and the latest version in the database. A disk symbol at the end of each line leads directly to the download of the device driver.

The download pages list all downloads for the selected device. There is no mentioning if the drivers are alpha, beta or final drivers and it is recommended to perform a search on a search engine to verify the result. The suggested update for the outdated Intel Chipset Software Installation on the test system turned out to be an alpha driver. A quick search revealed a final driver that was available for download.

The list of downloads could use some filtering options to filter languages and alpha or beta drivers. Still, it is a better alternative than searching for all device driver updates manually. It will at least list the drivers that are not up to date anymore which will narrow down the manual process to a minimum. A free registration is required to use the program.

A similar program is 3DP Chip (read: Computer Driver Updates) which will only scan the most important components of a computer system.

Tags: device driver, Device Driver Backup, driver backup, driver update, driver updates, drivers, windows driver updates, windows software

Free Driver Update

Martin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:31:10 +0000

Updating drivers can be a tedious job. One has to monitor the websites of the hardware manufacturers to keep up to date with new driver versions. Using a program to scan a computer system and check the driver versions against the latest drivers can help in the maintenance of the system.

One free driver update software is RadarSysnc 2009. It can be downloaded freely from the developers website and does not require registration to download or update drivers on the computer system. The software was not completely free in the past which has changed with this year’s version.

The process is as simply as it sounds. The option to scan a computer system will be available after starting the driver updater. All components that updates were found for are displayed in a list afterwards. The list contains the name of the component, the status and a link to details about the update.

The very same menu contains a button to Download all driver updates at once which will change the status to Ready To Install. A click on that will install the selected driver.

The Detail window is important as it displays information about the installed driver and the updated driver such as versions of both so that it is possible to compare them before installing them. It furthermore contains information about the driver that has been downloaded including links to the developer’s website. The menu contains additional links and options like reporting a bad download, sending a link to a friend or downloading a different driver (other operating system or version).

A scan of a test system was mostly successful. One problem that was encountered was that the software found an updated video card driver which turned out to be a Windows Vista update. Unfortunately the test system was running Windows XP. Could be a one time blunder but it could eventually lead to installations of the wrong drivers on a system. So its best to always check the information the program is providing before installing any drivers on the system.

Tags: computer drivers, download drivers, driver update, drivers, Free Driver Update, RadarSysnc 2009, windows software

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