Driver Booster, Windows driver updating tool

[Poppet 703]

Hello 

I decided to Install Driver Booster which is a windows driver updating tool,  I ran it and i was Informed i had 65 Very Old drivers that need to be updated,  I closed it and did not updated anything.

I then opened up the Device Manger and spent about 2 hours going through all my windows drivers and updating them,  Most of the time it came back with "The best driver for this is already installed"  I still managed to manually update about 15 drivers 

I restarted my computer and then ran Driver Booster again,  It now Informed me i had 61 drivers that needed an update, Initially i was told by driver boosted i needed 65 and even though i updated about 15 of them manually i still need 61 drivers updated    

So whats the story............

Am i safe enough to just click Update all drivers ?  (Obviously i will be un-ticking my graphics card driver as i will do that manually) 

Or should i go through each one of these and just select the ones i want to Update ?

Do any of the Avsim Forum Users use this tool and would you recommend it ?  

 

[Victoroos 205]

Driver + automation is a no go for me, because I want to know which one is being installed. Best bet is if you want to use the tool, look up what devices needs to be updated, and then go to the manufacturer site and select the new driver version if there if there is any. Version number comparison is then better etc.. IF you want to use the tool.!

[vortex681 806]

35 minutes ago, Victoroos said:

Driver + automation is a no go for me, because I want to know which one is being installed. Best bet is if you want to use the tool, look up what devices needs to be updated, and then go to the manufacturer site and select the new driver version if there if there is any.

+1 on this. If you let the software update all of the drivers for you and something subsequently goes wrong with your system, it's often much more difficult to troubleshoot which driver (or worse, which combination) caused the problem. Much safer to do it manually one at a time.

[edpatino 1,960]

55 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

Much safer to do it manually one at a time.

+1 here too!. Don't like to rely too much in those terrifying updates that Microsoft brings to the public, mainly for Windows 10.

Cheers, Ed

 

[vortex681 806]

3 hours ago, edpatino said:

+1 here too!. Don't like to rely too much in those terrifying updates that Microsoft brings to the public, mainly for Windows 10.

It's easy to opt out of automatic driver updates in Windows 10 whilst still keeping the important security updates. If you connect your system to the Internet, like most of us do, stopping the security updates puts your system at risk from all sorts of potential threats like the recent WannaCry ransomware attack which was prevented on Windows 10 systems by a security update. I've allowed every security update so far from Microsoft (but have blocked driver updates) and have had no issues. If you intend to install future major upgrades to Windows 10 (like the Creators Update) you apparently have to have all of the previous security updates installed anyway. Better to have them install a few at a time as they become available rather than all at once with a major OS upgrade. At least that way, if something does affect your system, you've got a much easier job of trying to track down what caused the problem.

[jmdriskell 178]

I dumped Driver Booster after I had problems with some of its recommendations.  It also seemed to take over my machine every time I rebooted and constantly recommended driver updates.  I couldn't verify the authenticity of some of the drivers so I uninstalled it and deleted the software.  It's much easier to periodically review the driver status manually and control the situation.  I DO NOT recommend Driver Booster.

 

Jim Driskell 

[JimmiG 244]

Avoid anything with "booster", "cleaner", "fixer", "repair" etc. in the name. They are just other words for "snake oil".

[Victoroos 205]

14 hours ago, JimmiG said:

Avoid anything with "booster", "cleaner", "fixer", "repair" etc. in the name. They are just other words for "snake oil".

#ccleaner exception ;) (agree though)

[lodestar 186]

A couple of years ago i tried some automatic driver updaters, mostly becouse i wanted easy and fast fix for "unknown device" in windows 7. I would recommend avoiding this kind of software too. One of them(i don't remember which)installed PUP and i needed couple of hours to clean my PC. So yes, it's much better to do it manually

[stans 702]

Been there, done that, had a screwed up computer to show for the effort.  No automatic driver updates for me ever again!  You just do not know what a new driver is going to do to your computer.  I also expect that since these driver boosters and other computer maintenance tools are freeware, that they also install spyware and adware.  Free is not free, there is always a cost and that cost must be covered.

[krazyk 157]

Been using it for a while now and haven't had any problems. It always creates a restore point before it updates anything so you are protected in some sense. Other than the GPU drivers and 'Game Components' (That's 16 on the list it shows right there), I don't stop it from updating the rest and having used it just shy of a year, my system has been running smoothly. Since it isn't freeware, you can be reasonably comfortable with it not installing or requesting you to try out other recommended software like most freeware ones do.

[Poppet 703]

Thank you very much guys for all the opinions, much appreciated