Drivers & Updates

Drivers & Updates is a category that encompasses two kinds of software. We are talking here about drivers and the tools that allow you to automatically update them, thus saving you a huge amount of time, which you can spend for something more interesting. We are also talking about programs that scan your hard drive for the installed software and let you know if there is a more recent version ready to be downloaded.

What are drivers? Those little guys are programs that make sure that your hardware works and communicates flawlessly with your operating system. Thus every PC component requires a driver to run, be it your printer, graphics card, sound card, network adapter, DVD drive or even motherboard.

But it is not enough to install all the drivers for this hardware. To make sure your gear works best and has all the newest features enabled that allow it to run the newest software, you have to make sure that you update your drivers periodically.

And this can prove soon to be a very daunting task. There are many components that require drivers and you have no way of knowing when a new driver comes out other than visiting the manufacturer websites unless…

…unless you install software that does the checking for this information, downloading and installing the drivers for you. Such programs are called driver updaters and are indispensable. Some are free and some require a purchase in order to unlock some features such as total automatization of the process.

Without this last feature, a driver updater will tell you about outdated drivers but you will have to react to this information, which takes time. Much better to spare a buck and buy a full version.

It is also good to have a backup of old drives in case an update to a new one causes problems.

What has been said above can be also said about software. You usually want to make sure you have the latest versions available so you have the newest features and old bugs or holes removed.