73 Comments Add your own

• 1. Andy  |  October 3rd, 2009 at 1:09 pm

  @Bob Thompson – Driver installation is indeed the lacking part in most driver update tools.
  Glad to see you are still computing at your age! And the commodore 64 was probably one of the most successful home computers in its time.

  Regarding registry defense, I was actually not even familiar with it, RegCure and RegEasy are much more known and used. They do claim to have a 60 day refund though, so you should be able to get that if you bought in that period.

• 2. Margaret  |  October 29th, 2009 at 12:17 am

  Article very useful!

• 3. Lynda  |  October 30th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

  Does Driver Detective have a basic free download to use since you feel it is better than ParetLogic DriverCure?

• 4. Andy  |  October 31st, 2009 at 1:44 am

  @Lynda – All the tools can be downloaded and installed for free, but before actually downloading the drivers, a license needs to be purchased.

• 5. Tanner  |  October 31st, 2009 at 7:21 am

  It says on the review that you can upload this software onto 10PCs, but in the user agreement it says 3PCs. Does anyone know why?

  Also, I just went to the order screen and it made me pay $40 instead of the $30 listed here..

• 6. Andy  |  October 31st, 2009 at 5:39 pm

  @Tanner – You are right, they have changed there license terms and only allow 3 PCs now. I’ll update the details in the review, thanks.
  Regarding the order, you probably did not deselect the additional year of license support which is selected by default in the purchase screen. That is another $9.95.

• 7. Don  |  November 14th, 2009 at 6:50 am

  Why is it most of these products won’t give the price or terms up front but want your name and email address first? I am very wary of any company that does business in that manner on the internet. I get way to much spam already!

• 8. Andy  |  November 14th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  @Don – Well maybe way they want to protect their sales details from competitors and ask people for some personal details to make sure they are serious?
  But I agree with you, which is why these details (apart from the license agreement itself) are part of the review table.
  On the other hand, with anti-spam laws today, these companies really will remove you from their mailing list if you unsubscribe.

• 9. dan tuman  |  November 24th, 2009 at 5:56 am

  I bought driver detective. It doesn’t work on windows 7 home premium 64 bit. It can’t be installed. Error message CLR error.80004005. program will not terminate. Help!

• 10. Andy  |  November 24th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

  @dan tuman – Driver Detective works fine on Window 7. Make sure you download the latest version though.
  Your error is most likely related to a .NET framework error. Try downloading and reinstalling the .NET framework 3.5.

  If it still does not work, you could try a different driver update tool. DriverFinder is a fairly new but very good tool as well, and Windows 7 compatible. I’m adding that to the review.

• 11. PREDAIS  |  December 10th, 2009 at 7:18 am

  can you gice me the serial key for device detective…..i think i need to update my drivers my computer keep restarting saying drivers_irql_not_less_equal

  thanks

• 12. Andy  |  December 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

  @PREDAIS – For a license key of driver detective you will need to register and purchase the software, I do not have any keys other than my personal copy used for the test.
  Regarding your error, yes in most cases that is a driver problem.

• 13. Mike Millard  |  January 31st, 2010 at 10:00 pm

  I talked my wife into purchasing the full Uniblue package to help revive sagging response times for her older Compaq. Driver Scanner appeared to update everything EXCEPT for a chipset update which it downloaded but could not install. Multiple attempts still leave the warning in place, and multiple “send error mss” to Uniblue failed to generate any response despite their “allow 2-days for a response message”. No apparent problems with other elements of thepackage, but opting for 30-day moneyback promise.

• 14. Andy  |  February 2nd, 2010 at 3:20 am

  @Mike Millard – Thanks for sharing your experiences. I know that the Intel chipset drivers cause more problems with most driver tools.
  The lack of response is worse though, but Uniblue definitely does not belong to the top 3 at the moment! DriverFinder, DriverDetective and DriverRobot are the best driver update tools around.

• 15. Lester Hugh Stenner  |  May 8th, 2010 at 2:09 pm

  I have Driver Detective installed on Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit, it works fine.

• 16. Chris  |  August 18th, 2010 at 2:54 pm

  Wish I saw this review before I bough freaking DriverCure (which crashed my PC by the way!). Anyway, got my refund on Monday and proceedded to buy DriverFinder (YOUR recoomendation). First I thought I got scammed again because the scanning was slower but it actually did detect MORE devices and well, all I can say now is that I have sound back and my pc is faster so I’m a happy-camper.

  Btw, thanks for mentioning the Test PC’s you used! Mine’s close to your Test PC2.

• 17. Fix Windows 7 Error Code …  |  September 16th, 2010 at 2:10 pm

  […] is a Vista driver for your device, which might work in Windows 7, you will not get it. Even Windows XP drivers sometimes work in Windows 7, possibly in compatibility […]

• 18. Joe Barber  |  November 18th, 2010 at 6:58 am

  Is there a program that detects and replaces outdated drivers?

• 19. Andy  |  November 18th, 2010 at 7:16 am

  @Joe Barber – That is exactly what these tools do, they check installed hardware devices and current driver versions and then check if there are updated drivers available.

• 20. Dan  |  November 19th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

  I Read #44 That the Intel chipset drivers cause more problems for most driver tools.

  Do motherboards have Drivers? If so, do any of these programs have problems with motherboard drivers?

• 21. Andy  |  November 20th, 2010 at 9:22 am

  @Dan – Motherboards do have drivers yes, actually the Intel chipset drivers are also motherboard drivers. Others are nVidia nForce and VIA for example.
  The problems are caused by the fact that these manufacturers include the same versions of device drivers across their released driver versions. As a result the programs could suggest an older version of a driver based on the fact that one of the devices in the packages is still newer than the installed version.
  From what I have seen and tested all programs have this issue, it is in the way they handle it in their support that there are differences.

• 22. Jesse Tepper  |  December 24th, 2010 at 5:55 pm

  Thank you very much for the work you have done to provide us with objective data. It certainly facilitates decision making. Regarding Driver Finder, will it automatically install the drivers it finds or need that be done manually? If the latter, is it a simple matter of hitting a couple of keys, i.e. going along with the program’s recommendation or must one know something other than the basics to assign the drivers to optimal/correct locations?

• 23. Andy  |  December 27th, 2010 at 8:14 pm

  @Jesse Tepper – A lot of the drivers are installed automatically by Driver Finder, but some do need manually installation. In most cases even that is a simple extraction of files using WinZip or 7-Zip and then running a setup program.
  In rare cases drivers can be more difficult to install, but I personally have found there tech support to be quite responsive and helpful in those cases.

• 24. Louis  |  February 28th, 2011 at 8:14 pm

  I recently uninstalled driver cure and when I turned my computer on the next day I got a yellow caution and it said that my application had a problem and that I should reinstall my application of driver cure. What should I do?

• 25. Andy  |  March 1st, 2011 at 1:01 am

  @Louis – All Pareto products, including driver cure, install a scheduled task to check and trigger notifications. Run the Windows task scheduler and see if there are any Pareto/driver cure entries. Just delete them.
  You can also manually delete the DriverCure folder in the Program Files folder to make sure everything is gone.

• 26. Amy  |  March 5th, 2011 at 9:04 am

  I definitely need to update drivers, however, three programs have failed to install on my computer. DriverMax, DriverWhiz, and DriverFinder all had various issues, either failed to install, or crashed, as DriverFinder did, upon attempting to open with virtual C++ runtime errors. Is there a preliminary fix for this? Or do I need a new computer? I have XP Home and do not have an installation disc.

• 27. Andy  |  March 10th, 2011 at 7:55 pm

  @Amy – I have actually run DriverFinder on many systems, including XP, Vista and Windows 7. In no case did I experience the error you got, but I do know that the VC++ runtime distributable is included with the program to prevent missing dependencies.
  Try running SFC /SCANNOW at the command prompt to check your Windows system files, and try manually installing the VC++ runtime distribution to see if that causes any problems.

• 28. George  |  August 8th, 2011 at 9:02 pm

  Based upon your recommendation I purchased DriverFinder over the weekend and used it to scan my 6 days old HP 610 all in one desktop PC. The scan said I had 14 drivers out of date, so I downloaded all the new drivers and managed to install all except the driver for my Broadcom WLAN Adapter that had an OPEN button. When I clicked that button a large Windows Explorer page opened with 49 component items including 2 setup items and 2 install items. However, DriverFinder did not indicate which of the 49 items I should double click so I don’t know what I should do.

  However, what disturbed me more today was that when I ran DriverFinder again today, it said 9 drivers were out of date, ones that I had installed the previous evening – what gives with this software and why is it acting like this. Furthermore I now have the Bluetooth stack error back again after the driver was supposedly updated, but, I just get the error message DriverFinder does not list the Bluetooth driver as being out of date!!

• 29. Andy  |  August 9th, 2011 at 2:37 am

  @George – New PC’s indeed often come with older drivers since they were installed during manufacturing. Regarding the installation problem with the Wireless LAN driver, I suggest you contact their support, because they are really fast and good.
  Unless I see the driver file I cannot comment on the installation details.
  Recurring driver updates can only happen if new versions are available, or if the install failed the previous time. The bluetooth stack error does not need to be the driver, that can also be the bluetooth stack itself, which is separate software.
  Again, please contact their support as that will help you best.

• 30. shane  |  September 4th, 2011 at 4:46 pm

  Is driverFinder a life time product, well as least as long as the specific pc is in opperation? Would like to use this for clients pc’s. is there anyway i could get a unlimited version?

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