Publisher: PC Drivers HeadQuarters
License: Free to try
The goal of this article is to explain the importance of device drivers towards optimum system performance. The article also shows you how to use Driver Dectective – a helpful and handy utility to keep device drivers updated.
What are device drivers and what makes them important?
Device drivers facilitate smooth interface between your operating system and hardware devices on your computer. This is the reason why, error-free and updated device drivers play a vital role for superior PC performance. Drivers for common operating systems, such as Windows and Linux are usually shipped along with the hardware by the manufacturer. Apart from this, one more source for device drivers is the driver database within the operating system that automatically detects and provides drivers for some popular devices when they are plugged in.
Keeping drivers updated helps enhance system performance
Hardware manufacturers release updated hardware drivers regularly. These updates take care of any bugs found in the previous releases and help you enhance the performance of the device. Often, the drivers shipped with the device, or those provided by Windows, do not include these fixes making your devices under-perform.
How does Driver Detective help?
Keeping a manual track of each and every device on your machine, and tracing its latest device drivers back from the manufacturers website can be a daunting task. Driver Detective comes to the rescue by providing you a simple one-stop solution. This helpful utility scans your device drivers, checks its database of updated drivers and recommends updates and fixes where it is found necessary. All these functions are done with just a few mouse-clicks and within a few minutes.
System requirements for Driver Detective
The program needs bare—minimum hardware requirements which include:
- Processor speed – minimum 300 MHz
- 256 MB RAM
- 22 MB disk space
- .NET framework
Driver Detective runs with Windows Vista, XP Pro, XP Home, 2003 Server, and 2000 in 32-bit or 64-bit Editions.
How to get your copy of Driver Detective
The Driver Detective installation file is a light 1 MB file and can be quickly downloaded here, absolutely free of cost. You may follow the simple installation wizard that you see after double-clicking the installation file. The software gets installed in minutes and you can see its program icon in the Windows Start menu.
This free download provides you complete scanning and detection functionality and gives you a fair judgement of the program’s capabilities. You need to register to enable driver updates and helpful features like customer service.
Through the screenshots and instructions below you will notice how simple it is to use Driver Detective.
Getting Started
The starting screen of Driver Detective, as seen in the screenshot below, shows a clean layout with a simple interface.
The screen shows you a summary of the last scan done on your PC, if any. You will also notice broad system details like your computer’s brand, model, system RAM, processor speed and BIOS. News updates regarding device drivers are also visible on the starting screen to the bottom right.
Initiating a Scan
Click the large “Scan Now” button on the starting screen to get started with a scan of your system. After clicking, you can see the scanning status screen (shown below) that shows a live status of your scan.
The scanning process scrutinizes the devices installed on your system and its corresponding drivers. In the screenshot above, you can see the horizontal progress bar indicating the status of this scan.
Immediately after the scan, Driver Detective connects to the Drivers HeadQuarters database and compares the latest available versions in the database with those found installed on your system. Finally, the program collates a report that gives detailed findings and recommended driver downloads.
Scan Results
The result page shows you the Scan Summary and Driver Details. The Scan Summary section shows you a brief statistic of the drivers scanned and its update status. The Driver Details section as seen below, shows all the drivers found on your computer grouped together on basis of type of the device.
Descriptive icons are used to inform you of the status of the driver—whether it needs an update or not. Drivers needing an update have a small diskette icon beside it. Clicking on the icon downloads the latest driver.
Integrated Customer Care feature
An interesting feature of Driver Detective is its simplified access to its trained customer service team from within the software. A Help option within the Help menu as well as beside the results (+ sign icon) in the scan results page enable you to send a quick question to the Drivers HeadQuarters support team that promises a speedy reply to your queries.
Other notable features of Driver Detective
Machine intelligence feature: Driver Detective has a smart feature that automatically detects the manufacturer brand and model of your computer or laptop. On these computers, when you open the tool for the first time, instead of the opening screen, you are directly taken to the Scanning step 2 screen that enables you to select the exact OEM PC that you own.
Further, the utility fetches details of drivers customized specifically for your computer mode. The program has a comprehensive database of about 2.5 million such computer manufacturer specific drivers.
Superior Scanning Technology: Driver Detective uses accurate hardware scanning methods that have evolved over 10 years of experience in providing solutions for driver issues. The driver scanning engine of the program has the following unique features:
- Detection of devices that have incorrect, outdated or no drivers installed.
- Identification of devices that are used regularly but not currently plugged in to the computer. (e.g. Devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras, USB peripherals).
Exhaustive database of drivers: Driver Detective claims to track an exhaustive 11 million device drivers in its database. This includes 2.5 million drivers that are manufacturer-brand and model specific. An example of a model specific driver is the SATA driver of a fujitsu hard disk, for Dell Vostro 1200.
Easy Driver Backup
When you upgrade or reinstall your operating system, the first thing that you need to look out for is the set of drivers for your hardware. Having even a single driver misplaced can be agonizing. A simple feature within Driver Detective helps you take a complete backup of updated drivers for your machine. To start the backup process, click the History icon at the top of the Driver Detective window. Select the drivers you want to backup and then click the Backup Selected link at the bottom of the window to launch the Driver Backup Wizard.
The software allows you to take the backup on a CDROM, USB flash drive or a remote network drive. The drivers can be easily restored from this backup within minutes.
Windows Vista Upgrade Wizard
This feature proves very useful if you are planning to upgrade your system to Windows Vista. The feature helps you scan your hardware and download essential drivers needed by Windows Vista.
Self-updating Feature
Driver Detective does not require any manual updates. The program updates itself through a database which is maintained by Driver HeadQuarters that tracks any changes across devices and manufacturers listed on it.
Conclusion
Driver Detective makes the tedious task of maintaining up-to-date device drivers individually, a cakewalk. Through its intuitive interface, you can conduct a detailed check on your system drivers and fetch updates, where found necessary. Priced reasonably at USD 29.95, Driver Detective provides a host of useful and advanced maintenance functionality that makes the tool a must-have for all Windows users. Click here to download now.
Additional Recommendations...
Driver Update: Many errors are related to driver problems such as obsolete, outdated or incompatible drivers. A driver update tool is recommended to scan your system for corrupted and outdated drivers and to ensure that all your drivers stay up-to-date.
