cyclone, yes I can. One of the programs was wrong.

KC4COP

Tom, I suspect that you are not in full awareness of the facts. We have Win 10 Pro installed on four PC's here in our office! We also have 365 on all of them! We have no problems at all. I suspect that you have other PC problems, a possible corrupted download or other problem MS Tech support didn't see. We have been on Win 10 here for 2 + years and have used their tech support and I simply would suggest you do a reinstall of your original op system and try again. We did have one instance where the MS Win 10 install file was corrupted during the original Win 10 download!

Tom, I forgot that we have a full suite of IObit products on the mas well! No problems!

Sam,
It is for people who don't understand computers/software that well, so they take the easy route. I always go to my MFG web site and download the latest drivers, just in case my PC crashes and I have to restore it. Not everyone is a geek.

Sam,

"I always wondered where these driver update companies find these "New drivers"."

I can't say how or where IObit sources their driver database(s). In general though, the 1st place to start looking is at the component OEM sites -- most devices are assembled from off-the-shelf components, so for example you find you have a Realtek audio chipset by looking in the properties for the device in Device Mgr., & Google on Realtek, going from there.

Sometimes component OEMs don't make drivers publicly available... driver sites very often collect drivers from product OEMs, so if Asus for example has a new product that uses a certain component, with a new driver, that same driver may work on other brand products that use that same component. That's where it can get tricky...

Ideally several people will try a driver substitution like that & report back if it worked or failed, & ideally if it fails the driver site will modify their database so it's not recommended. Neither is often the case, & worse, many driver sites are dodgy at best.

michaelangelo,

" most old schoolers don't mess with drivers or driver repair unless the box won't function. Unless its broken, don't fix it."

I'd politely disagree...
"If it ain't broke" is perhaps better [& more accurately] said: "I'm perfectly satisfied with whatever as it is now". Most people don't go the extra mile & define "broken" -- kudos for that -- but your definition is not what "broken" means regardless.

If hardware is not working as best it can, as it's designed to perform, then something's wrong, i.e. something's broken. Now when that happens it could be just poor design [the design itself is broke], or it could be that a new driver will fix or improve its performance. If driver software contains mistakes, e.g. a security vulnerability, a new driver may fix that.

Now whether or not you want to go to the time & trouble of looking for new drivers, on your own or using Driver Booster Pro is of course up to you. Millions [billions?] of people run devices that don't perform as promised on the box, so if your criteria is as long as it powers up, it's cool, you're not alone by any means.

michaelangelo, my response will be shorter. You are wrong. You are also being presumptuous when you say "most old schoolers...". When a driver is first released with an application it usually works. Driver updates do not so much fix unworkable application or "boxes" (I assume you mean computer) generally driver updates increase functions, fix bugs, and/or better fine tune the application or device that they were written to support.

KC4COP

Roger,

Thanks for the informative post. I'm glad you took the time to mention the pitfalls of doing "en-masse" driver updates without careful consideration! In my long experience, just blindly installing new drivers without a particular rationale for doing so often leads to unforeseen problems and severe headaches. As you know, a driver's role is to act as a "go-between" between a computer's operating system and its underlying hardware devices. If said hardware is working, and working well, there is usually no need at all to tamper with this balance. Just as if you had an automobile that was running very well, you wouldn't just run out to your garage, pop open the hood, and start digging around for miscellaneous parts to swap out for no reason. Here, the old cliche' applies to computers as it does to cars: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Having said all that, since you can run a scan and look at the results before committing to download and "upgrade" any new drivers, Driver Booster can be an invaluable tool just for taking stock of your system. I've used it myself in the past (as well as similar tools) to see how many iterations behind my video card driver was, for example, when a particular videogame wasn't running optimally and I suspected a newer driver could rectify this. It's also useful, as you mentioned, for seeing what drivers might work when you've upgraded your OS on an older computer, containing hardware which may not have native drivers for the new OS--although I have to mention, sometimes Driver Booster gets stumped in situations like this.

Finally, the utility of a program like today's GOTD might be limited for someone who owns a computer from a major manufacturer, like Dell or Toshiba, because usually the owner can go to their website, log in (or just search by model #), and find all the applicable drivers and updates all in one place. Then you can just read the release notes, and download and install just what you need--no special program necessary. However, for someone like me who usually builds their own system from parts, I would normally have to go to a dozen or more manufacturer's websites to track down drivers, so a program like today's GOTD can be a real time-saver.

I have to say though...despite the fact that Driver Booster can be a worthwhile addition to anyone's computer toolbox, I'm not at all crazy about the recent but aggressive trend in software toward "subscription" based models, especially in software which has not traditionally been subscription-based. And I just think that a 6-month term--not even a year--is particularly cheap. At this rate, we're all going to be getting 1-month trials as 'giveaways' eventually.

Roger, Spot on help!

Oh--despite my previous post being as lengthy as it was--there was one thing I forgot to say. But it's something I consider worthy of mention:

As I think I made clear, I'm not a big fan of the average computer user blithely doing wholesale driver updates without good reason. But I AM a fan of routinely checking your computer for outdated software, as well as the myriad plug-ins, browser helpers and other assorted utilities which can pose a security risk if not kept up to date. This can be a daunting or time-consuming task, but there is an excellent piece of software that can do the heavy lifting: Personal Software Inspector from Secunia.

Essentially what it does is scan your computer for any and all programs that are obsolete, outdated, or having well-known security vulnerabilities. It can then present you with a list, which you can use to tell the program what it should update for you; or, you can set the program to scan and automatically update every old program it finds (a "set it and forget it" mode). It can even update Windows itself--installing security patches and hot-fixes, even if Windows update is turned off! And why would you use it to update Windows instead of Windows itself? Because miraculously, it does a better job; it's faster and it doesn't seem to bring the computer to a crawl if you'd like to continue working during updates.

The program is free. You can read about it, and grab it, here:
http://www.flexerasoftware.com/enterprise/products/software-vulnerability-management/personal-software-inspector/

Roger, Your advice is so dangerous. Let's start here:
This means that more often than the not the driver you can download from the manufacturer's website out long out of date.

Really? If the manufacturer's driver is "out of date" you are suggesting that we rely on some unknown process to "update" and OEM's driver? That is mad. The only valid drivers for OEM needs are the driver's the OEM releases.

Anyone who follows advice to install unknown, unofficial drivers will have an unknown result.

Duante,

You bring up a good point, which I hadn't thought to mention in my long reply to Roger's post. Often the OEM drivers have additional "tweaks" or sub components designed specifically for that manufacturer's implementation of hardware (this is particularly common in the realm of notebooks and laptop computers).

Thinking that the manufacturer's drivers are "outdated" simply because there is a newer version of the drivers elsewhere would be a faulty assumption, and taking the newer--albeit "generic" drivers over the older custom ones can often lead to big, hair-pulling problems. Many computer users, including relatively knowledgeable ones like me, have had to find this out the hard way.

Roger,

"sometimes driver updates will fix bugs or lead to performance increases, so it's not a bad idea to update them, just not essential"

Writing software costs money -- companies have to pay people to write the code, then make sure it works. There has to be a good reason for a company to spend money, in this case to develop a new version of a driver. That reason may be to accommodate a new model(s), or it may be to fix something.

How essential a fix is or isn't depends on what the new driver version fixes, e.g. AMD's new graphics card could theoretically damage the motherboard, so a new driver is promised for today -- that's essential I'd think. Drivers can also have security vulnerabilities... in those cases once the vulnerability is published [often at the time new software is released], there's a rush to use that in exploits -- again installing the patched version would be urgent.

"However, Driver Booster keeps a backups of every driver it updates. This means you can revert to the previous driver"

You can usually also roll back a driver version in Windows Device Mgr.

"typically after only about 6 months after releasing a new PC, the manufacturer stops providing new updates... This is why software like Driver Booster can find driver updates... Also, the driver updates supplied from Windows Update, are often outdated too."

There are more than one level of OEMs involved... One company may make the chipset, e.g. Realtek [which is Very common], & provide reference drivers that they continually update. Another company, e.g. HP, Dell etc., may use a Realtek audio or networking chipset in their products, but only provide a copy of those drivers on their download site for [as you posted Roger] a brief time. The obvious answer in this particular case is to go to Realtek directly for the latest drivers.

Not all component OEMs are like Realtek -- many don't make any drivers available to the public. Driver Booster Pro can be a big help in these cases, tracking down & providing what at the least would be hard for you to find.

The Windows Update database contains the driver software OEMs provide to Microsoft. Not all OEMs trust MS, so many times they will not provide the complete, up to date code. OTOH with Windows 10, new drivers may *Only* be available via Windows Update, e.g. searching online for new drivers in Device Mgr. individually by device.

Robert Garofalo,

"Here, the old cliche' applies to computers as it does to cars: if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

If I were still running auto shops, the techs & I would send you a big bouquet of flowers with a card saying "We Luv U"! And I mean that in all seriousness.

Here's just 1 example... guy comes in for whatever maintenance & we see his brake pads are getting close, so we suggest replacing them when it only cost at the time $30 or $40 -- no big deal at all. Another guy has his car towed in with 1 of the front brakes locked, & it winds up costing him a several hundred dollars.

The 1st guy was a regular customer, & the service was nothing special -- just bread & butter stuff. The 2nd guy was of a mind that as long as his car stopped, no problem, so without any maintenance brake wear was not caught in a timely fashion, so one problem led to another, and another etc. until he needed a tow. The bigger the job, the more profit we made [we only got paid for the actual work], so expanding on my bread & butter analogy, this was a night out dining on prime rib.

Duante,

"If the manufacturer's driver is "out of date" you are suggesting that we rely on some unknown process to "update" and OEM's driver? That is mad. The only valid drivers for OEM needs are the driver's the OEM releases."

Windows drivers come pretty exclusively from OEMs -- the design data on the hardware is proprietary. That does not mean you shouldn't be careful of the source, since like every other type of software, malware can be included. There are different levels of OEMs -- there are the companies that make the components, & there are the companies that buy those components & resell them as products under their brand.

The component maker provides reference [more-or-less generic] drivers. The higher level product maker [e.g. Dell] may use those reference drivers as-is, may insert branding, may alter them a bit. In most cases the reference driver will work once the product OEM [HP, Dell etc.] stops providing new drivers on their site.

Robert Garofalo, as I said in my post, driver updates from the computer manufacturer are almost always out of date. Also, it's rare for there to be any release notes for driver updates.

Robert Garofalo,
Both points are valid. Some systems, esp. laptops - may have issues with generic drivers. However, it is absolutely true that many companies abandon their users after a couple of years, and will not update their driver offerings. I have an HP laptop that I recently installed the latest Intel video driver on (downloaded from Intel web site) - with great results. The HP web site listed a version that was several years old, and many levels out of date, as the "current" driver. They even had the nerve to claim it was updated in the last year (date of file in their table) when it was a several year old file based on version number. So while I am cautious about updating laptop drivers (have a good current backup and/ system restore option available) I would not in any way assume that the manufacturers are providing current drivers.

Mike,

I think you misunderstand the "don't fix what's not broken" mindset. It does not at all involve sticking one's head in the sand in the hope that things like computers or machinery will take care of themselves. On the contrary, the philosophy is more akin to that contained in a doctor's Hippocratic Oath, namely "first, do no harm." That means doing all the right things to ensure that something functions properly, without causing yourself problems by doing things that have no provable merit.

For example, to extend your automobile idea, for a 'broken-in' engine, getting your oil and filter changed every 7 to 10K miles is just smart ownership; OTOH, changing your oil every 200 miles is fixing what's not broken (and a waste of money). But letting your brakes go until the calipers are etching grooves in the rotors, or using tires until you are driving on the steel belts are not only things that defy logic, they have nothing whatever to do with the DFWNB ideal. If you don't maintain your car, it won't remain "not broken" for long.

In the computer realm, an equivalent example would be the fact that I certainly believe in routine maintenance--just like the car--to keep things humming along. I tell my clients to check their auto-runs list periodically and to trim it accordingly if start-up times have gotten bloated. I believe in keeping the OS and other software patched and up to date. But I DON'T believe in doing things like wholesale registry cleaning (even though the money I've charged for fixing the results of such "cleanings" have paid for more than a few new pairs of shoes). And I definitely don't believe in updating all the system drivers in one big whack simply because a utility program makes it easy to do so.

A final example, my own experience and one concerned with the topic of drivers specifically: A few years ago, while regularly working on an (at that time) 8 or 9 month old laptop, I was getting random but frequent dropped wireless connections with my AP/router. I thought maybe it was the router, which was itself pretty new at the time, but after running a bunch of tests I eliminated that possibility. Working my way down a mental troubleshooting checklist, I finally took a look at the laptop wireless card. Visiting Intel's website, I discovered that there had been three more revisions on the drivers since the version I was running. So I downloaded the most recent driver package, installed it--et voila, problem solved! My wireless connection has been sprinting along in tip-top shape ever since. But now, a few years later, my wireless drivers are once again, at last check, not the latest version. Except this time, I will NOT be updating those drivers. Why? Because my wireless is connection is, by all metrics, running wonderfully. Is it possible the new drivers will help me squeeze a few extra hundred kbps out of the connection, or contain a useful tweak? Yes. But it is just as likely that the new drivers screw something up. Sure, you can always roll back drivers, but I've still wasted time. And a potential problem could be something I might not even notice right away, and by the time it rears its ugly head I may not even associate it with the driver change I did three, or four, or eight months ago. This very thing happened to me, and for a whole week it was the bane of my existence.

That's why I don't like to fix what's not broken.

Duante, what you say is quite simply not true for the most past. It is extremley rare for a device to actually require the OEM driver for it to work. There are occasions where this is the case, but as I said this is extremely rare. This is based on my experience using many driver update tools for years. Over the years, I would have installed driver updates on well over 100 computers.

For the most past there is absolutely no need to stick with the OEM drivers. As I have said previously, there is usually no absolute need to update outdated drivers. But, if you want to update them with Driver Booster you should have few (if any) issues. Once again, this is not speculation, this is based on having used Driver Booster on many different computers.

Roger,
You said "driver updates from the computer manufacturer are almost always out of date"

Out of date compared to what? Drivers don't have an expiration date; they either function as they're supposed to or they don't. How old a driver happens to be is irrelevant; I have a video capture card using drivers written for Windows 98 (obviously because that's all that's available, but the device works as it should), and other assorted peripherals, including an HP printer, using drivers which haven't been updated in 7 or 8 years.

The whole concept of "outdated-ness" is a red herring. If you are having a problem with a piece of hardware, and there exists a newer driver you think could solve your problem (like the wireless card I mentioned in my other post here)--by all means, install that newer driver! Once in a while, after an OEM stops updating their version of a driver, there might exist a newer version of the "generic" drivers. If there is some compelling reason to do so, like the driver enables some new functionality not afforded by the earlier driver--go ahead, try it out. But for other than the specific reasons present in these two scenarios, I would not "update" any drivers.

RE your second statement "it's rare for there to be any release notes for driver updates"...hmm, I don't know what drivers you are typically dealing with, but in my long career in IT I haven't seen too many that didn't have release notes. Big gear makers almost always have them, i.e., Dell, Toshiba, HP, Sony, LiteOn, Samsung. Sometimes it's a standalone text file in a driver package, sometimes it's a section in the manifest. occasionally it's even a few lines in a .dll file. In my experience, the only time I don't find notes is when a Chinese manufacturer let's say is re-branding/re-badging equipment, or when you have contract manufacturing for very cheap gear sold to a lot of different system builders (e.g., track pads, SD card readers, etc.)

Rob Crombie, yes to both. You can select what driver you want to install, rather than installing them all. Also, it does find missing drivers. However, like all driver update software there will be some drivers it does not have in its database,.

Corno, Yes.

ABMM, sorry i disagree with you. This product i have used many years and NEVER has my system failed after an update. If you don't live with your head in the sand, new drivers improve your system, same as M'Soft brings out improvements for computer and drivers. I don't know about other driver updater's.

tommo, I take updates directly from manufacturers. There is no really so much updates that you need (and definitely you do not need anything from IOBit) this kind of software that might install unofficial drivers. I simply do not trust this kind of snake oils. But placebo effect is sometimes effective too, so tommof keep use them, others be careful.

ABMM, just like almost all driver updaters, Driver Booster will only install official drivers.

The only driver update software I can think of that sometimes installs unofficial drivers is DriverMax.

Roger, http://www.howtogeek.com/233115/the-only-way-to-safely-update-your-hardware-drivers-on-windows/

ABMM, I can relate to this. I've used this program previously, and found that the drivers it found for my system weren't appropriate and caused me great inconvenience.

ABMM, that article can not be taken seriously. The author is very clearly quite clueess about how driver update software works.

Roger,
I too have used this program and have had the wrong drivers installed on a few updates. While I have the program, I now review what drivers it says there are updates for and go straight to the manufacturers websites to double check and download from there. It can be a useful tool, I highly recommend not using it to get the actual downloads.

Roger,
I "silenced" the Geforce auto update on my Win 7 machine because ever so often an unstable driver was released (never touched beta!). In the end, tired of having to deinstall the latest and reinstall the previous working build I too came to the conclusion that staying with so-called old drivers has its benefits with no disadvantages.
We see way more generic drivers these days because the manufacturers cut on costs. As such the risk of getting an incompatible update is quite likely.
Clueless or less naive? I leave the answer to you.