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Driver Magician 3.71 Giveaway
$29.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Driver Magician 3.71

Driver Magician is a pro solution for device drivers backup, restoration, update and removal in Windows OS.
$29.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 544 62 comments

Driver Magician 3.71 was available as a giveaway on January 17, 2013!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
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Driver Magician offers a professional solution for device drivers backup, restoration, update and removal in Windows operating system. It identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a location of your choice.

Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the "saved" drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. After one system reboot, your PC will be loaded and running with the required hardware drivers.

If there are unknown devices in your PC, Driver Magician helps you detect them easily and quickly with its built in hardware identifier database.

Key features:

  • Back up device drivers of your computer in four modes;
  • Restore device drivers from backup in one mouse click;
  • Update device drivers of your PC to improve system performance and stability;
  • Uninstall device drivers;
  • Live Update device identifier database and driver update database;
  • Detect unknown devices;
  • Get detailed information of the hardware drivers;
  • Clone all drivers to an auto-setup package (.exe), so you can restore drivers without installing Driver Magician.

System Requirements:

Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (x32/x64)/Windows 8

Publisher:

GoldSolution Software

Homepage:

http://www.drivermagician.com/

File Size:

8.04 MB

Price:

$29.95

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Developed by Informer Technologies, Inc.
Developed by Disc Soft Ltd.
Developed by 3DP
Developed by Baidu, Inc.

Comments on Driver Magician 3.71

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#62

@21 mario:

Well i want a review of the gotd version NOT of any other version available around. It is impossible to test a version within minutes and this is very questionable what ashraf does here.

If he really wants to give tips and suggestions for similar tools, why doesnt he post DIRECT links to the software companies, but always to his website ???
Others here contribute with tips and direct links!!!!

I thinks, the main purpose is NOT to help anybody here, but to direct always traffic to another website. hrrrr..

So i would like the gotd team to stop people from using this comment to direct traffic to their own websites.

Reply   |   Comment by winfried  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#61

If Fubar is reading this page, I would appreciate his comments regarding his approach with drivers (and on the giveaway if he is familiar with it).
I have nothing but respect for his opinions.

Reply   |   Comment by freeform  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#60

I have yet to find one file updater program that was 100% perfect in all respects and never made an error. Therefore I install with both eyes open and along with my trustworthy primary updater (that varies!) and check with probably a second. Often one says I need 12 and another says I need 2. Now I am on RED ALERT! HA! Disagree with those (Ashraf et al) that say if it ain't broke don't fix it .. Based on my abstract theory that suggests these hardware people have more to do then just create updates for no reason at all!

Would not it be great if they just pushed them too us! OH dream on!

Reply   |   Comment by Harold Carlson  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#59

Echoing Ted (#49) I would totally agree that drivers should be installed one at a time with a reboot each time. If you install several and THEN find a problem, you don't know which one triggered the problem. Also it is certainly true that sometimes a perfectly good driver will conflict with another perfectly good driver causing problems on your system but not others. Sometimes an older driver will work better.

I've been working for some hours with this software on a pair of XP machines, one 6 yrs old and one 2 yrs old. So we're into "legacy drivers" in some cases. I have found that Driver Magician doesn't find everything that is outdated and several times the driver it fetched is different than the one suggested on the manufacturer's website.

I went to such sites several times today rather than waiting six hours for a download from Driver Magician and several times found different drivers on offer there. Other times they were exactly the same. Needless to say I'm going to trust ASUS more than Driver Magician as to what to install for an ASUS motherboard which is working fine when the two make different suggestions ...

However, Driver Magician did quickly find a driver I was actually looking for yesterday and couldn't find on the manufactuer's site (NEC Renesas USB 3 daugherboard). Driver Magician found an update quickly which did resolve a problem I was having with that device.

So this is a useful tool in that it can help you find needed drivers quickly BUT "CAVEAT EMPTOR," it's not necessarily always the right driver and it's no guarantee that there aren't other outdated drivers it missed. I did a few "update driver" attempts for drivers which Drivers Magician said didn't need updating and to my surprise Windows found updates on its own for two.

Given the enormous variety of hardware in use today, each component of which has one or more driver versions associated with it, any attempt to create a database that tracks ALL of those such that you and I can go "one stop shopping" to find the latest driver for every device we've bought in the last 15 years and still use, is almost inevitably going to be incomplete and not always completely accurate.

But even if this software was only right half the time, given that it can be tricky tracking down some drivers, especially older ones, that's still a huge benefit. It's going to save its users a lot of time some of the time.

Unlike Ted, I've only had to work on a couple of dozen computers and probably installed no more than a few hundred drivers and months can pass (and hopefully do) between instances when I have to deal with a computer malfunction. So all these tools, suggestions and advice are quite useful.

Thanks everyone.

Reply   |   Comment by Doug Thompson  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#58

I read the reviews and thought this would be a pretty nice piece of software to have around. So I gave it a shot. That might have been my first mistake!
I ran the driver updater as recommended Update device drivers of your PC to improve system performance and stability. When I went to install one of the downloads I received a message that read Drivers update is disabled in the unregistered version of Driver Magician. I clicked on Help > Register and was greased with Thank You Driver Magician has been registered. I closed the program and reopened it and ran the update again, that was OK, I ran the Update device drivers again. I had two updates one for my Ethernet Control Driver so I select it and clicked Download and again I was greeted with the Drivers update is disabled in the unregistered version. Maybe someone who recommend this software can answer solve this issue that should have been cleared in BATA or is that what were here for? Sometimes I wonder.

Reply   |   Comment by Pat  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#57

If Fubar is reading this page, I would appreciate his comments regarding his approach with drivers (and on the giveaway if he is familiar with it).
I have nothing but respect for his opinions.

Reply   |   Comment by Rob  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#56

I've been using Driver Magician for some years. I find it helpful in backing up existing drivers for emergencies and re-installs, but not very good at picking correct updates of drivers.

@Giovanni ... I'd really like to see a website with all of Giovanni's comments collected in one place for future reference. I find his listings of alternative freewares very useful, and his comments helpful.

Reply   |   Comment by MidAtlantic Mike  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#55

@ Sam Weeks, #44: Very interesting, useful to know.

Unfortunately, however, it seems that raw performance (power, speed, etc) is not the only issue. Security (against malware and hackers) is also a factor to consider, and so far as I can glean, it appears that many software updates (of both programs and drivers) focus are often (or even more often!) about fixing security glitches than functional problems.

This becomes rather obvious if one uses the Secunia PSI (secunia.com) updating software, which helps keep apps up-to-date - but only if they become 'unsafe' - that is, become vulnerable to malware or hackers. When I compare Secunia-driven software updates with other, non-security-driven updates, I get the feeling that, other than major version changes, most updates have at least some security aspect to them.

When it comes to drivers, however, I am not at all sure what the situation is. Secunia rarely if ever alerts me to driver updates - or, quite possibly, if it does, I am unaware of it.

So it would be interesting to know what would happen if you repeated that test, except looking this time at the security vulnerability of the two computer versions.

Reply   |   Comment by Arafurian  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#54

@ Ashraf...

Thank you for your reviews, which are always worth a look. The only problem that I have with them is that the sheer speed of their arrival (always #1 in the list!) causes confusion and disharmony amongst other contributors.

To help address this issue, may I suggest a small improvement: that you add, by way of a postscript, a short statement something like this:

Prior to each day's Giveaway, GOTD provides me with its TITLE, but not its exact software details. In particular, I do not receive an advance copy of the software to test. As a result, this review is not necessarily based on the exact software version being given away.

Hopefully, this will help reduce the puzzlement and trolling that they sometimes produce.

Reply   |   Comment by Arafurian  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#53

Only one much better than today's giveaway best free alternative: SlimDrivers Free (microsoft partner) http://download.cnet.com/SlimDrivers-Free/3000-18513_4-75279940.html?tag=mncol, 1

Reply   |   Comment by Grendel  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#52

@ #39 SoftwareBabe....not so, Babe. Read the first post...."Allows you to create an auto-setup standalone package, which will allow you to restore all of your drivers without the need to install Driver Magician".

Reply   |   Comment by Rob  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#51

Ashraf and Giovanni - two reasons why I come here, besides GOTD's offers.

Reply   |   Comment by drvajra  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#50

TO:- Sam Williams Do you mean SlimDrivers? It found that all of my Intel CPU, Wireless, mainboard etcs needs updating where other drivers updaters have failed to detects. I've checked that the versions in my computer was older than what the SlimDrivers it does backup, updates the new drivers for you and many more too. I will have a go with Driver Magician as it is only fair to try it out.

Reply   |   Comment by Stormy Wolf  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#49

@30, I never said I read anything or said I knew more than the next guy. I spoke based on what I knew and that is every day I came here, there were a bunch of people deriding Ashraf and his reviews in a very malicious manner for no other apparent reason than to try and prove their own supposed superiority of knowledge. I assumed (and once again, the old theory has been proven right) that he gave up getting beaten on (and who wouldn't get tired of it) and moved on. I didn't know he wasn't doing his site because I take my own advice and go there only when I'm looking for something, which is rarely, and when I didn't find what I was looking for, I moved on.

@Integrity,
If you were truly just curious, you used some awfully strange language. If you had stopped with the first paragraph, I might, MIGHT have bought into your "just curious" defense. The second one was just plain accusatory and inflammatory. Now if that wasn't your intention, fine, but that is how you came across to me and, judging by the number of likes from my first comment, that is how you came across to a great many others.

Reply   |   Comment by Noizee1  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#48

As a PC tech and small business owner selling used and new pc for 20 years.

I have installed more versions of Windows and 10,000 plus drivers easily. many times manually since I sold so many different computers and hardware.

A general rule i have on any computer even mine is " If its not broke then don't fix it". I'm not alone in this and any PC Tech will tell you we usually do not update drivers or firmware unless it is Reeaally old or there's a problem.

If your looking for trouble, thats the fastest way to find it.

If your current drivers work are are not too old, just back them up and leave them alone. Having a program that will back them up and streamline the installation is just great.

But for the experienced we know that sometimes it is necessary to install drivers in a certain order, and then reboot after each install and quickly test the installation.

It may impossible for any type of software thats not put out by the Mfg to know all those subtle details with the huge amount of systems and hardware out there: unless you have a Mac. Apple controls there vendors and the development of such things and its more likely this type of software would have less problems on a Mac.

On a PC its the wild west and results will vary.

Users need to understand this.

If I choose a driver backup program then I want to be able to also control the install order and reboot sequence script.

And for those installing windows, the 1st thing you should do before any software installations is start installing your drivers one by one as soon as you do your first re-boot after a successful OS install and boot to the desktop.

This type of software really requires some technical background knowledge by the user to be implemented properly. Otherwise the problems listed will show up often.

GOTD can not possibly test all the different millions of system configurations that you may run into using this type software, nor can the programmers.

This has always been a major issue with any driver made for a PC. So its expected that the drive software install/backup program will inherit the same problems. Its always going to be Hit or Miss.

So everytime you get ready to update or install a new driver/firmware, be prepared for the worst; you may crash your system or even prevent it from booting back into windows.

Heck Im still pissed at helping a friend install a scanner 15 years ago only to have the driver kill Windows. I had to spend 2 hours to fix it when I wasnt even getting paid, just helping out a neighbor.

We'll I dont help out anymore with installing drivers and software on any ones system or anything else for that matter on anything including cars.

Sh** happens, and it will when you least want it too.


ps, please forgive any typo's.

Reply   |   Comment by Ted  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#47

My attempt to install this came up with a time-limitation screen and a request for a serial number. Guess I am going to uninstall, as there are other ways to do this. The best use for programs like this is to permit version examination comparison of detected drivers and suggested replacements.

Reply   |   Comment by Ed Long  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#46

YAY ASHRAF! Thank you! One thing I have learned from reading hundreds of Ashraf's reviews is that he almost always knows more about the subject than I do, his information is usually sound, and his opinions are at least objective. They aren't advertising hype and they ARE almost always better informed than mine. And he usually knows about freeware alternatives which is good because ... we may like the functionality of a program and one day wish to put it on another computer. So it's good to know of alternatives to even the best GAOTD offerings.

That is what the "discussion" about the day's offering is all about isn't it? To REVIEW today's offering, compare it to competitors, so you and I can quickly decide if we have a use for this particular package. Ashraf usually gives us all more information about the product than we started with and that's always a plus. If that advertises his own website, then that's the kind of advertising I respond to well and seek ... honest, objective product information.

And YAY GAOTD ... I've discovered numerous useful software tools on here.

Most humans will never download a driver. With a laptop or unmodified "brand name" computer of any kind, the manufacturer's website will usually do the trick for updates. But there are many occasions when an added or replaced card or accessory such as a camera, scanner, external drive, etc., needs a driver you can't find easily and of course many serviceable original drivers have newer and better versions, if you can only find them. And finding them is often tedious and time consuming. I don't search for drivers on the net often but it's rarely a quick and easy experience. The downloads may be slow from Driver Magic but at least you don't spend much time searching and you don't risk getting a lot of unsolicited "freeware advertising" etc. etc.

Wrong Driver? Humans make mistakes and I assume Driver Magic is run by humans. Sometimes their data base might be wrong. You might get the wrong driver, or a new driver, even if the right one, just might not work for you as well as the old one. That is the beauty of the backup. If the NEW driver doesn't work as you wish, you can at least go back to the OLD driver. Windows allows you to "roll back" to a previous driver easily through the Device Manager. Just right click on the device and the option pops up. Should that fail, you can reinstall the old one from your backup.

If a new graphics driver makes your monitor unusable, boot in SAFE MODE (press F8 during power up) and "roll back" to the previous driver or "restore" using system restore to an earlier time or reinstall from backup. So unless there's something I don't understand here, there's little risk in installing the wrong driver. You can undo the installation in several different ways.

One should ALWAYS create a RESTORE POINT before installing anything. That way you can very easily and quickly return the computer to the pre-install state if you wish to do so. That restore point combined with a backup copy of the old driver along with Windows' ability to "roll back" a driver update makes it pretty safe to install anything other than malicious software. If you don't like the results of the installation, you can literally "turn back the clock."

I tend to agree with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" school of thought and I am reluctant to spend time chasing driver updates for hardware that is working just fine. I'm skeptical of the frequent admonitions I hear to "update" software which I'm perfectly happy with. Updating CAN have a downside, at the very least you have to spend some time doing it. Occasionally the "enhanced new features" actually degrade functionality for some purposes. I particularly hate it when they change a user interface I have to use often. Suddenly the familiar buttons are moved or renamed or even REMOVED so I have to learn how to use the interface all over again or, in some cases, just can't do what I used to be able to do.

There is a reason why many businesses, big and small, are still using Windows XP. The COST of retraining staff to use the new system, replacing software and hardware, etc., is very large. And for many businesses XP and Word 2000 does what they need it to do just fine and the "updated" versions offer no new features THAT THEY NEED OR WANT. It just offers them new expenses and added complexity.

If Microsoft had not stopped supplying XP, for instance, I suspect Vista and Windows 7 would have attracted very little interest. Who needs most of those extra whistles and bells? Sure, some people do BUT NOT MANY of the millions of people who simply use computers to read and write documents. As for touch screens, well I can't even REACH any of my four monitors ... why would I want fingerprints all over them? The point is not that there are not applications for touch screen technology, the point is that not everybody needs or wants every new potential capability. In a "free market" should it not be the case that those who "freely choose" and PREFER XP with a keyboard and mouse should be allowed to do so?

So sometimes the "update" business is simply a way of generating new business and making people think they need things they don't actually even want. Sometimes it's actually enforced obsolescence whereby the supplier attempts to make what you bought last year no good anymore. But driver updates are rarely of that category. They are usually free and they are not DESIGNED to reduce functionality and if they do it's easy enough to roll them back. Drivers are usually altered to fix bugs, conflicts, and performance and security issues that surface after the initial release of a product to solve issues users report. And if you're not having those issues, the new driver is not going to have any discernible benefit to YOU.

Tech support people probably say "update drivers" FIRST because that really does sometimes resolve issues and once you've done it then you know the problem is not one of those which is resolved in an update. So it is a sensible step when you have mystery problems with a device.

Another step that often resolves issues is to uninstall and resinstall the existing driver. In my experience that frequently resolves mysterious problems that develop in a computer.

And finally, many people recommend re-installing the OS periodically. That almost always improves performance. Some say once a year, but the frequency depends on what you have done with the computer since the last install. By making an image right AFTER a successful first install, along with ongoing backups of your data files, and keeping new software and drivers on a removable drive, so it's not lost in reformatting C: drive, you can do a re-install more quickly than a new installation of everything. Of course you will lose any GAOTD software installed after that image was made. Enter Ashraf and his "free alternatives." Sometimes those will meet your needs. And sometimes you will just go buy the software because you've come to appreciate its value.

I do find it amazing that anyone finds Ashraf's contribution to this site to be anything other than a HUGE ASSET for all of us! Even if he's dead wrong now and then, though I've never known him to be totally off base, a great many posts on here are uninformed, misinformed, or downright misleading. Ashraf's are usually informed, concise and objective and provide an excellent summary of what the day's offering can do and can't do, and that's what we all want to know BEFORE we spend some hours downloading, installing and checking it out.

If GAOTD is not paying him to do that, they should. One knowledgeable and objective expert's review is worth a thousand comments from uninformed people, and it takes a lot less time to read!

DT

Reply   |   Comment by Doug Thompson  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#45

I have used this program in the past and recommend it. My knowledge with computers and windows is pretty good and it has found some drivers that i have been unable to locate. I won't say its perfect, but for the average user, i would recommend it.

Reply   |   Comment by Christian Biagi  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#44

The best use of this software for me was to extract/backup all 3d party drivers of a PC, then slipstream them into windows install disk. In a non-profit organization, where you have to manage two dozen computers, it's a real treasure if you have a windows install disk that contains all possible drivers of all computers.

I don't comment on today's giveaway's driver updating capability, but I found it REALLY useful that it can extract drivers and .inf files, exactly as nLite needs them.

Reply   |   Comment by Jet  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#43

5 years ago, my company did a side by side test on two computers. Both were reset to factory condition then one had all the drivers updated on it and the other did not.

In tests afterwards both computers ran the same (across sound, graphics, speed, cpu and internet etc) despite the former having had some 19 'outdated' drivers.

Reply   |   Comment by sam weeks  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#42

Over the years I have tried just about every driver up date program out there. They are all slow, most are inaccurate and many screw up your system. I appreciate Ashraf for his timely reviews...at least he has actually used some version of the giveaway before writting about it. It gives you a better sense of what you will be getting. Anyone can search on line and post endless lists of freeware that they have NOT tried. Many of the posted freebies are garbage and no one could possibly have all that time to actually try each one.
Thank you Ashraf for your straight forward reviews of what is actually being given away. You probably won't see this comment as most of mine get 'moderated away' whenever I put down 'you know who'.

Reply   |   Comment by Mothman  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#41

The most popular suggestion is 'Include a 'select all' checkbox instead of having to select individual checkboxes. It's easier to deselect than select.' Look in the bottom right hand corner, there's a button for 'select all'. Click it and it toggles between 'select all' and 'select none'. This is a Public Service announcement.

Reply   |   Comment by Souter Johnny  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#40

I tried this last time it was offered here. After I let it update a couple of my drivers with what it said were newer versions, my system was nearly unusable until I restored the "old" versions. Never again. If you must try it, use with extreme caution.

Reply   |   Comment by Steve  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#39

When I think of all the software titles I've tried from GOTD over the years, this is one of my top 5 favorites! As a computer technician I often have the need to wipe out and re-install a PC's operating system. Not having the proper drivers specific to that PC can be very difficult to identify and download once you've reformatted the hard drive. If Windows does not include the NIC (Network Interface Card) driver as part of the new installation it greatly complicates going online to download drivers. Using Driver Magician to save the existing drivers to a flash drive prior to reformatting can save a lot of time and needless frustration.

Reply   |   Comment by B-Rizzle  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#38

Just remember this:

IF YOU INSTALL AND USE THIS SOFTWARE TO BACKUP YOUR DRIVERS AND YOU REFORMAT YOUR PC, THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO **PURCHASE** THIS SOFTWARE IN ORDER TO RE-INSTALL YOUR BACKED UP/SAVED DRIVERS.

Just get the freeware versions for driver backups.

Reply   |   Comment by SoftwareBabe  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#37

Slightly off topic, but can you help. I have and old cisnet computer thats still chugging along. Tried to update drivers was nerve wracking. Tried a while back to find a recover disc. No luck. I have some GOTD programs that I would like to keep as well as driver set up. Should i just do a ghost or what? Any advice would be appreciated.

Reply   |   Comment by lynnB  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#36

Let me share with all my experience with such program. These programs are only good as far as backing up your drivers, and for todays's giveaway, it does a good job in storing your drivers to an exe file, so that it can self-extract to install drivers in case you re-install windows. Some programs of these type do not have this. As far as update of drivers, DO NOT DO IT IF EVERYTHING IS DOING ALRIGHT. I have used this to update drivers, thinking to boost performance, but ending with a lot of problems. Thought that the program is not good, so got another, the same. Finally, I got PerfectUpdate, from Raxco, thinking that this is from the big players, maybe it will do well, ALAS, the worst happened -- BSODS after BSODS, and had to re-install my OS. If ever you want to update drivers, do it one at a time. But these programs always claim that they can do it all at once, saving time. Really? Not my experience.

Reply   |   Comment by Andrew  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)
#35

Driver detective (paid) always worked well for me. The point is that it doesn't makes backups. But it is very good at locating truthful updates of drives that you already have on your machine.

Reply   |   Comment by Sergio  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#34

#19 CooDaddy: He's not allowed to pursue his business idea because that makes him an Evil Capitalist. What he should do is sit around waiting for the elitists to throw him some scraps from their table and whine about how The Man is keeping him down.

There is no amount of excellence that goes unpunished today.

I have to agree with Giovanni on this one, the best way to assure you have the most updated drivers is simply to update them yourself. Some computers (like mine) have automatic update programs installed from the manufacturer. I can either run that installed program or simply visit the manufacturer's site for the drivers for all my core programs (audio,video, etc). Or, do as Giovanni suggests and run down that convenient list he posted.

Thanks Ashraf & Giovanni for the very informative posts.

Reply   |   Comment by Melika  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#33

Nr 15, I feel you have a valid concern. Sorry but I see Ashraf's posts nothing more than a recap of what's in the programs write-up from GOTD. I do find Giovanni's posts a much more informative and useful complement to this website even if he has burned a few bridges with the software vendors :-0. I think this site is a nice one stop review of real world experiences from good to bad software. I like poking at those who put down software (registry cleaners for example) but fluff up software like this when it can cause the same if not more harm to our PC's (BIOS upgrades for example). Thanks to GOTD, the software providers and to the posters who make this site one of the few I visit EVERY morning.

Reply   |   Comment by tc1_uscg  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#32

The driver download speed is soo slow. I have high speed internet but on chrome, it shows the download speed 2,000 bits/s... 3hours to download a 30mb driver? No thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by Infa  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#31

Lots of thumbs up. Where are all the "anti-registry" cleanup people LOL. One would think if your "device" needed updated drivers, your OS would tell you. As the saying goes, if its not broke, don't fix it. I don't tinker with my regitry, I don't screw-around with my drivers and when you do, your asking for trouble (domino effect). Though I enjoy software that backs up your system, this is no exeception. Too bad it doesn't include a 'system' backup util also. It just seems logical that once you have updated all your drivers, it will back up your system so if you do crash your system, you can put it back to the way it was and just doing the driver restore isn't what I had in mind. Just sayin.

Reply   |   Comment by tc1uscg  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#30

#13 proves the rule to never believe anything you read on the net. IF you visited his site THEN you would realize that the reason Ashraf stopped contributing reviews here is the same reason he stopped updating his site -- for a time altogether and now not without help from others -- (and that is) he got busy with his life. It had nothing to do with him being intimidated by negative reactions.

As far as GAOTD "giving him software ahead of time to review" ... were that true then his reviews would all be of current versions (they are not).

The bottom-line, #13 is that if you don't know something, stop making others believe that you do. Capiche?

Reply   |   Comment by Say What  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-10)
#29

This found a driver update for my video display that DriverMax didn't show. I have to give this a thumbs up for that reason.

Reply   |   Comment by Mitchell  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-7)
#28

A power user would download all the drivers himself to make sure to get the right ones, and keep a backup of the setup files somewhere. A novice user, who doesn't care about the extra features, shouldn't fiddle with the pre-installed drivers that come with Windows 7/8. They work just fine, despite what myths marketing agencies might want you to believe. And most significant drivers, such as those for graphics adapters, are updated every month anyway. No reason to keep a backup for them. I'm not criticizing Driver Magician per se, I'm pleading for a some kind of rationale here.

Reply   |   Comment by LukeWarm  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#27

Double Driver, mentioned by Ashraf in comment #1, is very good at what it does. It archives each of your existing device drivers so that they can be easily reinstalled.

Unlike today's GAOTD, and other driver managers, DD does NOT go out to the web and look for updates to your drivers. And to me, that is a good thing. I have tried a couple of driver updaters and have always been disappointed. The alleged updates that they find are often in the wrong language, or incompatible with my OS, or otherwise unsuitable.

Reply   |   Comment by Neil from Ohio  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#26

Are there any driver backup programs that detect the current, and search for updates to the computers BIOS files?

Reply   |   Comment by RichU  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#25

Whatever else can be said, positive or negative, I can attest that it downloads drivers from its site SLOWLY. Like circa-1990 modem slowly. That in itself is enough to disqualify it in my eyes.

Reply   |   Comment by Roy  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#24

@ 15: By now you must have read Mike's comment also but since you seem genuinely intrigued, please allow me to add a few words. If I'm recalling correctly, Ashraf has himself suggested in the past that GoTD would give him a heads-up before each giveaway without releasing the actual GoTD version of the software itself so that he could test it and write a review about it in time (you could do a custom Google search on dottech.org if you wish - I don't have the exact link). He would grab whatever latest version (freeware, trial or demo) of the software he could and evaluate that. I reckon it's the same way these days as well which explains the timeliness of his reviews and also why he (well actually his protégé Justin) sometimes has to add that the freeware/trial version lacks certain features. And yes, his reviews are still relevant as he clearly mentions which version he tested and what features he couldn't try because of any restriction. Immensely helpful in making an informed decision if you ask me. Cheers.

Reply   |   Comment by AliRM  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+34)
#23

To #4 I agree with your comments, particularly the bit about downloading the wrong driver. I used this last time it came around. I had it download a driver for a completely different type of device than the type the driver was for. This program can make a backup of existing drivers which is useful for putting all your current drivers in one folder. That part of it is very clever but I found the false driver update available and as I said worst of all installing a completely wrong driver for that particular device. Windows 7 x64 has to use certified drivers which makes it all the more a mystery as I don't know just where they are getting these allegedly new drivers from. I guess they are certified drivers but just not the right ones sometimes.

Reply   |   Comment by Chris G  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#22

This GAOTD, given away here several times in the past, does its dirty job (= Update + Backup your PC drivers) pretty well, although, after some tests I personally performed recently, it didn't detect a couple of outdated drivers running in my system.

But despite that it definitely deserves a THUMBS UP!

That being said, I regret to inform the developer of this nice tool that, as usual, with GIOVANNI wandering around there's no need to pay anything even for professional apps like this....LOL!!

In fact, if you prefer relying on FREE solutions, the first thing to do in order to keep your PC in perfect shape is actually to update its INTEL drivers:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect
http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/NVIDIA-GeForce-Experience.shtml

Most important, besides Intel drivers, are also the VIDEO drivers:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/auto_detect.aspx
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

Then, for the other remaining DRIVERS, best thing to do is to visit your PC manufacturer website and then download all of the right drivers there, according to the model and OS of your PC!!!

For instance, ACER users can go here to update the drivers of their machine:

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

Then to backup & restore all your updated DRIVERS, you can use the excellent freeware “DOUBLE DRIVER” already mentioned above!!

Alternatively, or better yet in addition to it, to update all of your drivers with one mouse click, you could also try the following pretty good FREE third Party Software, kissing your wallet goodbye!!!

As always with Giovanni you can take your pick (for FREE of course!!)

DRIVER EASY (==> My personal First Choice)
The FREE version allows you to update your PC drivers only!! This software can find what others cannot:

http://www.drivereasy.com

3DP CHIP (==> My personal First choice)
Very effective tiny tool designed to find any possible outdated drivers of your system in a blink of an eye. In my personal tests, it was able to detect 3 key outdated drivers, related to CPU and BIOS, missed by other paid/free software out there(Driver Magician included). The only cons is that you can download the drivers only via web browser. But honestly, given its outstanding performance, who cares about it?

http://www.3dpchip.com/3dpchip/index_eng.html

In a nutshell, best Giovanni's FREE solution:

DRIVER EASY + 3DP CHIP ==> Update all drivers
DOUBLE DRIVERS ==> Backup all drivers

Total cost ==> 0$/€ with better final results compared to paid software like this GAOTD, for instance.

Other good FREE driver updating tools are also these:

DRIVERS FOR FREE
http://download.cnet.com/Drivers-For-Free/3000-18512_4-75548155.html

- DRIVERMAX (==> FREE edition allows you to update only 2 drivers a day)
- Ma Config
- Slim Drivers (==> Cool Cloud-Based Driver Management)
-(Portable) Device Doctor
- Portable Driver Identifier
- DriverPack Solution
- DriverView (==> Softpedia Editor Pick)
- MyPCDrivers

So let's kiss our wallet goodbye for good: sounds good, right dudes?? Of course it does....LOL!!

Enjoy!!

Reply   |   Comment by Giovanni (GAOTDs developers damn bugbear!!))  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+220)
#21

@Integrity
of course Ashraf doesn't receive the given away software. That would be unfair for all other users. If I'm not wrong, he only receives a pre-note of the software that's going to be released, so he grabs any version he can and reviews it. The final GAOTD release might not be exactly the same as the one reviewed.

@MikeR
better not to enter into this. That site was just GREAT! It saved me hundreds of dollars in software that I use until today, AND Ashraf wasn't totally innocent...

Reply   |   Comment by mario  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-9)
#20

#13 Noizee1,

Do you know for sure that GAOTD (sic) gives Ashraf the software up front, or are you guessing? A week or two back, the program he reviewed had a different version number to what was offered here, which makes me doubt your theory. Also, what makes you think I'm a "hater"? I don't hate anything or anybody; I don't believe in wasting energy that way. I'm just naturally curious about how and why people do what they do.

Reply   |   Comment by Integrity  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-35)
#19

So Ashraf has a good business idea and he pursues it. What's wrong with that? Apart from that all this comments, including this one are beside the point. People should write about their experience and questions about the software offerd and not talk about people who do just that, like Ashraf. One third of the comments sofar have nothing to do with the software.

Reply   |   Comment by CooDaddy  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+25)
#18

I have a HP Desktop and a Gateway Laptop, I went to the makers website with my model number and downloaded all their drivers for my PC manually. I know what my drivers are and I don't have to worry if I have the right ones.
Thanks anyways GAOTD

Reply   |   Comment by Terry  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)
#17

downloaded installed nice and easy

Displayed all drivers.

Offers backing them up - but then you have to manually select / tick every single one..........
anyway good I have them backed up , but 500mb

Says I have 5 that need updating,
maybe later as the download speed, is slow for some reason,


Driver Magician did not show one driver that I get nagged about, TCP/IP protocol driver ,
as needing updating by Auslogics systems advisor and shown with a yellow triangle in my Windows device manager.

Reply   |   Comment by eddy  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#16

Yeayyy

Yet another giveaway of this. In the past it gave me the wrong drivers, not sure about to day. But I have now downloaded and installed my upated drivers 3 times, they are STILL avail as updates. And yes, I did restart my computer, so all drivers should be registred as updated. Not the first time this software behaves this way. Must be good to make something, that do not really work and charge for it.

This is why I NEVER will buy a software like this.


DriverPack Solution
http://drp.su/
Works 100x better then today giveaway, and is FREE.

Reply   |   Comment by Micke  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+40)
#15

#9 Basheer,

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't hold that against Ashraf. I'm all in favor of research and preparedness. I've read some of his reviews and, barring a few typos, they're reasonably well written. My issue is partly with the timeliness of them. To borrow your example, when a prominent person dies, the media will release their pre-prepared biography, along with more recent details, such as cause of death, where and when they died, and so on. Those more up-to-date details are what's lacking from Ashraf's reviews, making me think that he's not downloading and installing the official GOTD release. And if that's the case, how relevant are his reviews?

Reply   |   Comment by Integrity  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-94)
#14

@ #5 Integrity: Posts similar to yours land with such regularity on GOATD software comment threads that folks are bound to wonder just what petty agenda is driving them and why the individual(s) concerned have to resort to several different posting IDs. It's so reminiscent of a certain other so-called giveaway website which spewed out one lie after another about the dot tech site before it became deservedly extinct itself.

If you're so stupid that you can't work out that GAOTD flags up forthcoming giveaways to dot tech so that it can provide a relevant kick-start to these threads -- rather than, as used to happen, comments like 'Gosh I'm the first to post here!'-- then you shouldn't be within a mile of a computer.

If, however, you're not stupid but merely malicious, then can you take your sad obsession somewhere else and leave GAOTDers to (a) make up their own minds about a software offer and (b) decide if on the basis of their own user experience they agree or disagree with a dot tech post.

Reply   |   Comment by MikeR  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+166)
#13

@Integrity, How do you think he does it? GAOTD gives him the sw up front so he can test it beforehand and post his results so that we can all have an independent review of what is or isn't in the program and whether or not it will be useful to us. He also recommends freeware often as not but I'm afraid I'm going to have to tip my hat to Giovanni in that category. Ashraf stopped doing reviews for this site for a long time because haters like you couldn't keep your mouths shut. Is he on the ball 100% of the time? No, and I dare you to find me someone who is, now STOP RUNNING YOUR MOUTH AND SCREWING IT UP FOR THE REST OF US! As for his site, try looking it over once in a while and see what there is to see that might be helpful to you and let the rest of it go, and yes, it is that simple. As for this giveaway, it is definitely not something that runs very quickly at all. Better to start it and do other things while it works in order to pass the time.

Reply   |   Comment by Noizee1  –  11 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+147)
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