42 Comments Add your own

• 1. Barry Jackson  |  May 15th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

  Extremely helpful, to-the-point comparison.

• 2. Johnny Mason  |  May 27th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

  Great article: helped a lot.

• 3. Brenda Binde  |  May 29th, 2009 at 5:07 am

  I have a lisense number to download DriverCure. How do I do this using my lisense number that I received when I got RegCure.

• 4. Andy  |  May 29th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

  @Brenda Binde – DriverCure and RegCure are different products, I do not think you can use the RegCure key for DriverCure or the other way around. You can contact ParetoLogic and ask them about it of course.

  If you have a license key for DriverCure, you can simply enter it in the program (click Register in the top right hand corner of the application window), and click OK there.

  Andy

• 5. Gary Fluken  |  July 11th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

  Very helpful. I tried driveragent in the past but did not like it. Now i’ll try driver detective.

• 6. Mindy  |  July 29th, 2009 at 1:00 am

  I heard driver detective didnt work. I was going to try driver cure. Does ANYONE know if this is a good product? I reunstilled windows xp and I am missing drivers and have some outdated. Can anyone HELP PLEASE!!!!
  Thanks Mindy

• 7. Andy  |  July 29th, 2009 at 7:38 am

  @Mindy – It worked fine in our test. What did you hear exactly?
  Driver Detective and DriverAgent are the products that have been around for several years and probably have the largest driver database. But as a product Driver Detective is better, since DriverAgent is an ActiveX based implementation.

• 8. Why Do You Need Updated D&hellip  |  July 30th, 2009 at 3:19 pm

  [...] program that will download and update drivers automatically. There are several of this type of driver update programs available and each one will generally hold a comprehensive database that contains the latest [...]

• 9. Mindy  |  July 31st, 2009 at 10:11 am

  Thank you so much for your help!! I had heard the it would not put on the driver. For example someone ran it and it said they had 11 problems and after they run the fix problems it said they still had 11 problems. Another person said it would not work on there bulit computer and I am worried about that the most I also have a built computer. Do you know if this will be a problem. I JUST WANT SOUND!! I did run DriveDetective and it did find 10 problem and just wanted to know if its going to work before I buy the program.

• 10. Mindy  |  July 31st, 2009 at 10:15 am

  P.S. Andy I just wanted to thank you for all your help. I have been trying to fix these for weeks and I have wrote person with no response. I was going CRAZY!! Thank you so much again!!!!

• 11. Andy  |  July 31st, 2009 at 11:07 am

  @Mindy – Driver Detective does not install the drivers automatically, so after you download the drivers, you still need to install them from the download location. That is probably why the person got the same results when running the program again.
  I have also ran the program on several custom built computers and it runs just fine. As long as you run a supported Windows version there should be no problem.
  Lastly, all driver update programs in the review have a refund option, so you can always get you money back in case it does not work.

  I hope you get your sound working!

• 12. Mindy  |  August 1st, 2009 at 8:45 am

  Driver Detective is THE GREAT PROGRAM EVER!!!! Thank you so much for your help!! Things on my computer that never worked are working now and most of all I HAVE SOUND It is so easy to use and the things I couldnt figure out I took the online tour and got them fix. Andy Thank you so much again for your help!!!

• 13. Dave  |  August 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

  Just bought driver Cure and I found it a complete waste of money. The program found 22 outdated drivers but failed to replace any! I just got messages – ‘Incompatible’ but mostly ‘Driver failed to install properly’. I have now claimed refund.

• 14. How to Fix Stop Error 0x0&hellip  |  August 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

  [...] third option is to use a driver update program, which can identify and update all your drivers for you, including the video card driver. These [...]

• 15. Sandy  |  August 20th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

  How much will all of this cost? Is the price of the drivers part of the $29.95. Initial scan indicated there were 20 outdated drivers.

  Could an outdated driver cause a problem I am having getting connected to Comcast.net

• 16. Andy  |  August 21st, 2009 at 1:59 pm

  @Sandy – For all programs the cost is a one time fee, all drivers you download with the program after that are free of cost.

  Outdated drivers for network or modem devices can certainly cause connection problems. It depends on the type of problem/error though.

• 17. Mr. Cunningham  |  August 26th, 2009 at 1:19 am

  I’m looking for an (elect) plug w/ resistors 7 such . The (ORGINAL) wall plug in has failed. C/0; hp scanjet 4470c – 1200 dpi / 48 bit color . ” H E L P ” . ( – :

• 18. Andy  |  August 26th, 2009 at 5:58 am

  @Mr. Cunningham – I think you will only find that though HP itself, have you tried contacting HP support for it?
  HP even has a replacement part search online.

• 19. Mario Chapdelaine  |  August 30th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

  I tried Driver Detective and Driver Cure and Driver Max (not tested here).

  They all give differents drivers to upgrade I mean:
  Detective tell me 17 drivers to change…
  Driver Cure tell me 8 drivers to change (not same drivers than Detective found)…
  Driver Max tell me 4 drivers to change (3 as Detective and 1 as Cure)

  That means what ??? These are just a way of having my money lol …

  What must i think of my 3 scan ???

  If they are so good, why results different from all of them ??

  Think about it.

  My computer = Laptop Acer 5920Gemstone Intel Vista x64 4 gig ram 256 video and so … A nice bomb in laptop

• 20. Andy  |  August 31st, 2009 at 5:53 pm

  @Mario Chapdelaine – Good that your tried different programs, and thanks for sharing your results! But your experiences do not surprise me. That is exactly why we tested the most popular ones, and that is also why I emphasized that the quality is really depending on the completeness of the driver database.

  The times these products have been in the market varies, and I am sure their method of updating the driver database does as well. This all contributes to the variations you also saw.

  Having said that, Driver Detective is still the best in the market at the moment in our opinion.

  PS. Nice laptop

• 21. Patrick J-P  |  September 4th, 2009 at 5:25 am

  Hi ! I recently had to re-install XPSP3 on my Dell E4300 laptop and of course the drivers had to be re-installed too using the Dell CD. Since I am not a geek and I am not really motivated into doing these things although I have to do it… I made some errors with the drivers installation order, I dont know if I loaded these in the correct location, etc… but at the end the whole thing worked but it was a boring job and a mess. Next I went to have a look at the Dell website to check if these drivers had not been updated since the E4300 even with 2.4GHz, 4Gb Ram, 250 Gb HD and all the other nice bells and whitles has got me mostly dissapointed. I think it is the worst Dell I ever had and it is ugly too. Anyway, there were 25 updated drivers. This evening I have tested Driver Checker, Driver Scanner and Driver Detective. The two first found that 2 drivers needed updating whilst Driver Detective found that 25 needed updating which is pretty impressive. Now, this does not resolve my problem or ignorance of how and where exactely these drivers should be installed within the HD whilst not generating clutter with the old drivers remaining there. It would also be interesting if the Dell applications & utilities were scanned in the same way. The best would be to have a scanner that would propose the whole correct installation sequence to the user, the user would confirm which drivers / applications / utilities he would like to update and let the software take over the whole job… Is anyone doing this ?

• 22. james  |  September 13th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

  what the best program for Windows 7

• 23. Andy  |  September 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

  @Patrick J-P – Driver Detective and Driver Checker actually include a check for outdated software now. Personally I think most programs do a great job in updating themselves, so I do not agree with incorporating this feature in driver update tools.
  But Driver Detective definitely has the most complete driver database at the moment.
  Regarding the old driver files, they are not deleted as it would not allow you to rollback in case of problems with a new driver.

• 24. Andy  |  September 15th, 2009 at 8:09 pm

  @james – We have not run a full test on Windows 7 yet, but I ran all 5 driver update tools on Windows 7 build 7100 just now. This was on a Acer Extensa 5620 laptop.
  Driver Detective found 22 out of date drivers, DriverCure found 10 out of date drivers, Driver Checker did not find any out of date drivers, DriverScanner also found no out of date drivers and DriverAgent found 11 out of date drivers.
  Again Driver Detective proves the most complete driver database.
  The drivers that were flagged were at least the same for all programs, which is reassuring.
  Seems Driver Detective is also the best choice for Windows 7 at the moment.

• 25. Pat  |  September 27th, 2009 at 8:30 pm

  I read the reviews, customer comments and QandA’s and decided on Detective Driver which I purchased, followed instructions and scanned my computer. It found 25 outdated drivers. This sounds like a dumb question but I couldn’t find an “install” or “update” option to choose. Does that happen automatically?

• 26. Andy  |  September 27th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

  @Pat – Actually Driver Detective does not install the drivers for you. Once you download them, you need to install the drivers yourself.
  DriverScanner is the only tool that installs drivers from within the tool.

  The main reason for this is that most drivers come in a .zip file format. In order to install them, you need to extract the .zip file and execute the setup.exe or install.exe within it.

• 27. sam  |  September 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

  Hi
  Reviews say driver detective can be used on ten computers Is there additional fess? Are These programs on annual subscription? thanks

• 28. sam  |  September 28th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

  is there any free program?

• 29. Andy  |  September 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

  @sam – The Driver Detective license can be used on 10 PC’s without additional cost.
  All programs indeed have an annual renewal fee. Most do allow you to limit the cost of the annual renewal by getting a multi-year license at a discount.
  I am not aware of any free programs for this. You would need to manually search the manufacturer’s websites.

• 30. Bob Thompson  |  October 3rd, 2009 at 4:24 am

  I bought Driver Detective and it seems to work fine. I did experience initial problems in understanding how to install certain drivers. DD does have a tutorial on their web site and it helped -I think. I’m almost 80 and the memory is regressing to a commadore 64 level.
  I also bought Registry Defense with high recommendations and have received no support whatsoever. They won’t refund etc.

  My Registry Defese is not the Ghost Security one who have helped guide me to the correct URL.

• 31. 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.

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

  Article very useful!

• 33. 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?

• 34. 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.

• 35. 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..

• 36. 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.

• 37. 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!

• 38. 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.

• 39. 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!

• 40. 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 good tool as well, and Windows 7 compatible. I’ll do a review on that shortly.

• 41. 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

• 42. 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.

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