A full review of Driver Easy, a free driver updater tool
Driver Easy is a free driver updater tool for Windows that has access to millions of device drivers at the click of a button. The program is really easy to use, too.
Manually finding drivers for Windows takes forever. And sometimes you still don’t find what you need. Driver Easy effectively changes all that. Finds drivers for: Audio Devices, Bluetooth Devices, PCI Cards, Network / Ethernet Cards, Modems, Wi-Fi Cards, Chipsets, Graphics Cards, Scanners, Printers, USB Devices, CD/DVD-ROM Drives…
Because you can download drivers directly from the software, you don’t have to worry about searching for them yourself. However, before you get started, there are some disadvantages you should be aware of.
Driver Easy will scan your computer, tell you what drivers are missing or outdated, then download them all. All you have to do is click your mouse button 3 times! Then, once they’re downloaded, just click install on each, and you’re done.
More About Driver Easy
Driver Easy supports pretty much every version of Windows ever, plus offers some beyond-driver-updating features that you might find useful:
- Officially supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7, but also works with Windows Vista.
- Driver Easy shows a comparison between the currently installed driver and the driver that should be installed as an update, which includes the driver name, provider, date, and version. The file size for the download is also displayed
- Drivers that are downloaded through Driver Easy are stored on your computer, where you’re then required to install the driver yourself, manually
- You can hide devices so they no longer show that an update is required
- Driver Easy can also be considered a system information tool because it shows basic information on the CPU, motherboard, network cards, video cards, and more
- Driver Easy includes a method of downloading Windows Updates, claiming it provides faster speeds than you would get using the default method in Windows
Thoughts on Driver Easy
If searching for drivers manually is confusing or has been difficult, then using Driver Easy should serve as a simpler solution for downloading the right ones for your computer. It’s unfortunate, though, that you must manually install the drivers you get through Driver Easy because let’s be honest, that can be a pain too.
Something we don’t like about many programs, including Driver Easy, is that they’ll have lots of features that appear to work for you until you actually try them out, at which point you’re asked to pay for a professional version of the software to activate those options.
This is the exact case with Driver Easy when, for example, you try to back up drivers, download multiple drivers at once, or uninstall drivers. For those features, you need Driver Easy PRO.
We say above that Driver Easy works without an internet connection, but unlike similar driver update tools that let you use the program normally without a connection, Driver Easy just locates the network driver for you. Once the proper Ethernet or Wi-Fi driver has been installed, and you have a valid network connection, you can then use the program normally to find any other outdated device drivers.
Reading to this point, it might sound like hate this program, but that’s not true. Yes, when compared with similar driver updater tools, Driver Easy falls short in many ways. However, there are some things we like.
The scheduler is very helpful, even better than most of the other schedulers we’ve found in other driver updater tools. With the Driver Easy scheduler, you can set a scan to take place at any time, including when you first log in to Windows or when your computer goes idle. Plus, you can set the schedule to wake up the computer to run the scan as well as to stop the scan if your computer is running on batteries, among other options.
Features and Highlights
Huge Driver Database
The program, supported by over 8,000,000 Driver Database with Daily Driver Updates, keeps all drivers in your computer up-to-date so that to maximize PC performance.
Keep Existing Drivers Up-to-Date, Fix Driver Issues
Using Driver Easy, you would never have to spend hours trying to find drivers at random sites on the Internet. The app is designed for saving your time and fixing any related headache driver issues.
Safety Offline Scan
The program provides you safety Offline Scan for offline computers. The software lets you save a driver analysis file on a computer without an Internet connection, and helps you to download a driver from an Internet-enabled computer. Offline Scan feature provides you an easy and fast way to locate the most accurate network driver for your computer.
Drivers Backup & Restore
Backup & Restore features in the tool, offer a professional solution for device drivers’ backup and restoration in Windows operating system. It identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a secure location.
Download Windows Update faster
With the smart download server picker and 2 ~ 5 concurrency download, the app lets you download and install windows update faster than ever.
Uninstall Removed Hardware Driver
When you replace the new graphic card, do you know Windows still keeps the current driver, and will launch it each time when Windows startup. This will cause the system to boot up slowly, and what’ s worse, it may cause systems conflict. Driver Uninstall feature in DriverEasy allows you to uninstall the removed hardware and clean up your system.
Note: Requires .NET Framework. Limited functionality.
Overall, we definitely recommend Driver Easy if you’re not sure where to go to get driver updates, or you’re curious which of your device drivers are outdated. We just wouldn’t use it as our first choice when looking for a free program that can update drivers, for the simple reason that it requires you to install them yourself.
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