Avast Driver Updater Review
Aug 3, 2016 - We've seen advertisements for a “Driver Update Utility” from. Some reviews on Download.com allege that if you actually pay $30, you'll.
DriverUpdate.net Examined RELATED: We’ve seen advertisements for a “Driver Update Utility” from driverupdate.net all over the place recently. This is usually a bad sign — we also see ads for PC cleaners, and all sorts of other utilities that don’t actually do anything besides try to make money from you and install garbage onto your PC.
We installed this software so you don’t have to — really, don’t try this at home. We started with DriverUpdate. It will scan your computer for drivers for free, and then you can pay $30 to receive free automatic driver updates for a year. That’s what it promises, anyway. The program starts out claiming to be by a “Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.” This doesn’t actually mean Microsoft has placed their stamp of approval on this utility.
It then attempts to install other junk software you won’t want. After installation, DriverUpdate ran a scan and informed us that our computer had 14 out-of-date drivers, many of which are considered “ancient.” This is on a fresh Windows 8.1 system — installed just a few months ago — with the latest drivers available from the manufacturer’s website at the time. There’s no possible way we have “ancient” drivers from 2006 installed.
If you try to update your drivers, you’re told that the installed drivers “can cause problems, system slowdowns and bluescreen errors.” This is technically true, but very unlikely. It’s also technically true that updated drivers could cause problems, system slowdowns, and by introducing new bugs. The tool wants you to pay $30 a year to “Fix current device driver problems,” “Benefit from new driver features,” and “Prevent future system problems.” It’s very unlikely any driver will offer new features, and it’s very unlikely your current drivers could cause “future system problems.”. This is all designed to convince you to pay that $30 — and that “Microsoft Gold Certified Partner” logo there is designed to make the program seem more legitimate than it actually is. Tech Support Scams and Crashes RELATED: Some allege that if you actually pay $30, you’ll receive a phone call from customer service informing you that they found problems on your computer during the driver update scan. For just a few hundred more dollars, you can have them fixed!
It’s basically just, but they’re only going after people who have already proven they’ll spend money for questionable software. Other users report the company charged them more than $30 after they attempted to buy a subscription, tacking on “add-ons” that raised the price. Other people report crashes and blue-screens after installing updated drivers from this application — not a huge surprise. The reviewer below recommends “trying another one,” but you don’t need any driver-updating utility. Perfect uninstaller serial number. Stay away from them all. Driver Support and Other Tools We’ve seen other driver updaters behave poorly, too. We saw one driver utility detect a virtual machine as a Dell PC.
We’ve seen driver-updating tools pop up with suggestions to install drivers for printers that were never connected to the PC. Here’s another driver-updating utility in action. It’s named “Driver Support” and uses the same business model, charging $30 a year for driver updates. It’s even more ridiculous — it says our computer’s “Driver Health Is Low!”.
To fix this, we need to update our “HID-compliant mouse” driver. This is a standard type of hardware — you should never need to update this basic mouse driver; it’s included in Windows. You Don’t Need to Update Your Drivers, Anyway Here’s the thing —. If you play PC games, you do need to update — but that’s it.
And both NVIDIA and AMD include automatic driver-updating tools along with the graphics drivers to make this easy. Driver updates occasionally arrive via Windows Update, so a serious problem will be fixed just by installing your normal updates. Hardware driver-updating utilities would be a waste of time even if they worked properly.
This software feels familiar. Like PC cleaners, Mac cleaners, registry cleaners, system optimization utilities, and all the other sketchy PC maintenance software you see advertised all over the web, it’s all about scaring you. Once you’re scared, you’ll pay up for their useless service.
Welcome to BleepingComputer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site. Or read our to learn how to use this site. I would not recommend the use of any driver updater unless it was to find a driver of an out of support computer and that software would be Snappy Updater which is open source. If your computer is running fine and you see no yellow exclamation marks in your Device Manager there is no need for a driver update.
The only exclusion to that rule would be a GPU update provided for by the GPU's chipset maker such as Nvidia or AMD. Sometimes a GPU update will give an improvement. If it ain't broke don't fix it is my philosophy when it comes to driver updates. Windows 10 updates the driver's on the system automatically unless you disable it so why have another piece of software updating your drivers?
As JohnC21 and mikey11 have both said in their own ways: Don't use third party driver updater software. It is even possible to tell Windows 10 to avoid updating drivers if you take the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach. I always update mine if the device manufacturer or my computer manufacturer recommends doing so, but not otherwise (but I do allow Microsoft's updates on my machines mostly because I want to encounter any issues that might occur that my customers are likely to encounter, too; that way I can come up with solutions before the calls come in). Brian AKA Bri the Tech Guy (website in my user profile) - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1809, Build 17763 Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect. Considering that natural disposition in many men to lie, and in multitudes to believe, I have been perplexed what to do with that maxim so frequent in every body's mouth, that truth will at last prevail. Jonathan Swift, Examiner No. XIV - Thursday, November 9, 1710.
Use Avast anti-virus if you must.but use it ONLY for that.don't use any of the other nonsense that comes with it.cleaner, registry cleaner, driver update etc etc Came across this thread looking for more info about Avast!' S Driver Updater. In general, this is applicable to all AV software, not just Avast! However, one feature of Avast! I've found very useful is its Software Updater, but I use it in 'manual' mode, not automatic mode (which requires paid subscription). Adobe photoshop elements 2019 review in india.
It will check the current installed versions of over a dozen common utilities and applications that are often exploited by malware, viruses, worms, etc. Examples are Adobe Reader, Java Runtime, WinZip, FlashPlayer, iTunes, 7-Zip (similar to WinZip), and web browsers (Opera, Firefox, Chrome) etc.
It leaves major packages handled by Windows Update alone (e.g. Microsoft Office). About the time Windows Update does its thing monthly I pull up the Avast!
Software updater to see what else might need updates. It will tell you what has updates available and if you wish, you can have the Software Updater download and install them. You can also select which you want updated if there's more than one application with updates. For me it's been much more useful than manually checking everything individually by starting it up and going through its menu to check for updates. I don't put this into the same class as hardware driver updates, which shouldn't be very often. It's more aligned with AV protection to avoid software and browser exploits. John Edited by jalind, 08 January 2019 - 12:20 PM.
You still haven't gotten the message. Don't use third party update software to update any drivers. The drivers which these products suggest are not the same as those supplied by the manufacturer of the product you are trying to update. You also need to do as suggested regarding checking the Device Manager for any yellow warnings or red errors indicating that there is a problem with a driver.
Go to the manufacturer's website for the product you need drivers for and download the drivers from the manufacturer's website only. There are those who would argue that you can use third party drivers, but they are not the same drivers the manufacturer supplied in all most all cases. Another consideration is what else will be included in the driver download from a third party vendor. This could include anything from ad ware to something much nastier. You still haven't gotten the message. Don't use third party update software to update any drivers.
The drivers which these products suggest are not the same as those supplied by the manufacturer of the product you are trying to update. You also need to do as suggested regarding checking the Device Manager for any yellow warnings or red errors indicating that there is a problem with a driver. Go to the manufacturer's website for the product you need drivers for and download the drivers from the manufacturer's website only.
There are those who would argue that you can use third party drivers, but they are not the same drivers the manufacturer supplied in all most all cases. Another consideration is what else will be included in the driver download from a third party vendor.
This could include anything from ad ware to something much nastier. Driver upsate software does use manufacturer supplied drivers.
Where do you think they get the drivers from? Sometimes there may be a difference between drivers supplied by a computer manufacturer and a hardware manufacturer. But, quite often driver update software will actually install the driver from the computer manufacturer. One exception to this is DriverMax.
Sometimes it will install custom video drivers, rather than the official ones. But no other driver update software does this.
As for your last comment. Driver update software only actually downloads the needed drivers and nothing else. No driver update sofware is malicious or will install anything malicious. At worst, there are three driver updaters (one of which was published under many different names) which just give fake scan results and don't actually download any updates. Will updating drivers make your computer faster and fix crashes and errors. Most likely not, with the exception that updating video drivers and replacing Microsoft's generic storage drivers with the proper OEMs can sometmes significantly increase performance.
But, despite the often misleading claims used to market driver update software, they are not malicious. Brian AKA Bri the Tech Guy (website in my user profile) - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1809, Build 17763 Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect. Considering that natural disposition in many men to lie, and in multitudes to believe, I have been perplexed what to do with that maxim so frequent in every body's mouth, that truth will at last prevail. Jonathan Swift, Examiner No. XIV - Thursday, November 9, 1710. Well, there's always a contrarian. I believe that the readership knows the reputations of those advising against using driver updater software and will take that into account.
I'm not saying that people need to use driver updaters, but I'm sick of seeing misinformation benig spread about these types of programs. It is a big issue, as there are many shady websites which publish removal guides for driver updaters and other software which can be considered to be unwanted by some people. These removal guides state that the software is harmful and they recommend using security software (e.g. Malwarebytes), which they publish or they make money from as an affiliate, to remove the software. When the reality is that the software is not malicious and can be easily be uninstalled, without requiring malware removal software being used. I have no time for software publishers using misleading cliams to sell their software and I also have no time for misleading claims and scaremongering being used to sell security software.
Edited by rogerm2, 09 April 2019 - 03:15 AM. I'm not saying that people need to use driver updaters, but I'm sick of seeing misinformation benig spread about these types of programs. There is a very good eye opening article posted at the website, I would suggest you read it. This was published about three years ago, but it is still accurate. Below is a direct quote from this article. We’ve seen advertisements for a “Driver Update Utility” from driverupdate.net all over the place recently. This is usually a bad sign — we also see ads for PC cleaners, Registry cleaners, game booster, and all sorts of other utilities that don’t actually do anything besides try to make money from you and install garbage onto your PC.
We installed this software so you don’t have to — really, don’t try this at home. We started with DriverUpdate. It will scan your computer for drivers for free, and then you can pay $30 to receive free automatic driver updates for a year. That’s what it promises, anyway. The program starts out claiming to be by a “Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.” This doesn’t actually mean Microsoft has placed their stamp of approval on this utility. It then attempts to install other junk software you won’t want. After installation, DriverUpdate ran a scan and informed us that our computer had 14 out-of-date drivers, many of which are considered “ancient.” This is on a fresh Windows 8.1 system — installed just a few months ago — with the latest drivers available from the manufacturer’s website at the time.
There’s no possible way we have “ancient” drivers from 2006 installed. Edited by britechguy, 09 April 2019 - 10:19 AM. There is no question about the consensus opinion in the IT community about third-party driver updater software. It is a mess, often bordering on malware, and even when it isn't the damage it can and often does cause makes it something to stay away from.
That's not inaccurate, nor misinformation, but fact. BC does not support the use of third-party driver updater software, and that has been consistent for years now. That position is not about to change. The use of automated driver update software from your computer's OEM or the OEM of specific components in your system, for which those update programs are specifically dedicated, is a separate issue (and is fine). Edited by britechguy, 09 April 2019 - 10:18 AM.
Brian AKA Bri the Tech Guy (website in my user profile) - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1809, Build 17763 Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect. Considering that natural disposition in many men to lie, and in multitudes to believe, I have been perplexed what to do with that maxim so frequent in every body's mouth, that truth will at last prevail. Jonathan Swift, Examiner No. XIV - Thursday, November 9, 1710.