Driver Scanners

[yetanother1]

There should be a section in the Gizmo website about free driver scanners, if any exist that are worth installing.

[Anupam]

It is best to download the drivers from the manufacturer's site, as they only provide the latest version of genuine drivers for the particular hardware.

Downloading drivers from some other sites, or with the help of other softwares, can result in problems, which can lead to BSODs, etc.

You can check out these threads on forum, discussed in this respect :

checking for driver updates

best free driver updater

driver updater

If you want, we have a Best Free Driver Backup article, which you can check out on the main site.

[MidnightCowboy]

I agree that certain segments of the PC using community would find this information useful. The trouble is that many users over estimate their knowledge of Windows and next to registry cleaners the inappropriate use of driver "updates" causes more system failures than anything else. Therefore, to produce such a category with enough information for the knowledgeable, but without encouraging those who shouldn't to "dabble" would be quite a challenge.

False results from AV software cause enough problems as it is without extending this to system drivers which is maybe why we haven't gone there yet

The blunt facts for this are:

• If your system works when you turn it on then you don't need to scan your drivers.
  
• If it doesn't and your Windows knowledge it at expert level then you will know what to do anyway.
  
• Anyone outside of this group should seek expert advice and not attempt a "fix" themselves, unless of course they have their installation CD's or an image close to hand