Drivers

Herman

The Image Stimulator
Location
The Netherlands
Name
Herman
Which freeware program do you recommend which checks installed drivers and allows auto update?
I got no Mac, I got no Windows 7, I got Vista.

Suggestions are welcome, thanks.
 
Agree on both. If your PC vendor did not provide you with a specific program for your configuration, manual driver updating is best.
Windows 7 (and vista too) suggests driver updates for major updates, at least for LAN, video and audio drivers.
I also agree that on the same hardware 7 performs better than vista.
 
Thanks guys for your replies. We got Samsung and Toshiba laptop computers here, do they support on drivers update?

By the way, how to check manually?
 
Brand names are usually part of the major driver updates in windows update. I am quite sure both Samsung and Toshiba are.
The windows-suggested driver updates appear like the others when you do a windows update (most of the times as non-critical updates), which of course you can start manually.
You can also force windows to look into the big driver database in the sky on windows update servers by opening the "Manage your computer" window and force a look for "hardware modifications" (not sure about the wording as I am on an Italian-language machine)
 
Hi Alf, thanks for your reply, I don't think/believe myself that driver's updates are part of any Windows Update.
Does anyone here at SC have a link on how to check and update drivers?
 
Hi Alf, thanks for your reply, I don't think/believe myself that driver's updates are part of any Windows Update.
Seen with my own eyes. A few times on Vista, at least ten times on 7 since I built my last rig in December. Mostly related to LAN/VGA/audio drivers as it was a fairly new Sandy Bridge PC.
 
Since I built my computer, I know every piece of hardware in it so it's fairly easy. Most of the things that need drivers that are updated are the video card/ integrated video, audio, SATA, USB or other items. Laptop drivers are not updated regularly since most vendors find a driver that is just good enough and leave it at that.

You can find your hardware by going to control panel and then system, then device manager. Like I said, chipset drivers are generally not updated regularly by the manufacturer, even though your chipset might be Intel which updated frequently. The things that matter the most generally are video which would be under display adapters, audio would be under sound, video and game controllers, and usually network adapters are generally updated. After finding the hardware, then you have to go to the manufacturers site and see if the driver you have is older that the driver they have.
 

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