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Do free driver updaters exist?

You have probably heard that "Nothing in life is free". Well, this is true to some extent, for most goods and services. However, driver updaters don't come into this category --- they really do exist for free. They will scan your PC to advise you which of your drivers need updating, to save you tons of time (the alternative would be to manually look up each device on your system). 

Before getting into the finer detail, let's look at what types of devices need drivers and what they do. 

Why do I need to update drivers?

Every computer and operating system needs drivers in order to work properly. The drivers help peripheral devices communicate with a computer. It's like getting our brain to speak to our feet and guide us where we need to go, at the speed we want to go. One can't function without the other. These devices that have driver software leading the way are either built-in components (e.g. graphics cards, audio drivers) or plug-in devices (e.g. external monitors, a mouse).

If you didn't have drivers to link these essential components to your central processing unit (CPU), they wouldn't work. That impacts sound, visuals, and functionality. That's because, without the drivers, your computer wouldn't recognize these devices. Recent analysis by Microsoft found that 70% of all blue screens and PC crashes are caused by incorrect device drivers.

To find missing driver updates, you usually have to check in your operating system and click on each device to find out if there is a newer version available. Different operating systems require different drivers for each device. There are millions of drivers out there so you can't always find out if you're using the latest versions directly from your computer. 

When this happens, it means you need to note down each device's model and the driver version that you're running, then compare this to the most current one listed on each manufacturer's website. For this reason, it's always better to use a third-party driver updater tool that's built to check outdated drivers in seconds and then update them, which is a difficult feat to match for us mere mortals. 

What a free driver updater will do for you

Most free driver updaters will run checks quickly and advise you which ones are out of date. Unlike pro versions, they generally won't perform the updates for you, so you would need to find the device drivers that need updating and manually download the new driver software. Or, buy the software to perform the updates for you. Luckily there is a way to do all this for free, which we'll go into later.

Something to consider with driver updaters is how many drivers a tool has on its database. Free versions may only have 200,000 which means there could still be some gaps when it's finished searching for missing driver updates. More comprehensive tools will have a database of millions of drivers.

Also, most driver updaters do one thing... find and update drivers. They are standalone tools with one purpose. There is nothing wrong with that because it's why we're here today but as well as updating drivers wouldn't it be nice to have a tool to clean up lots of elements of your computer at once? 

CCleaner's Driver Updater tool has more than 25 million drivers in its database so it can communicate with lots of different manufacturers about their driver updates. It comes with CCleaner Professional, and will scan and show you how many drivers should be updated. Even better, you can trial CCleaner Professional (no card details needed) and get the updates applied for you, for free.

The Driver Updater tool as part of CCleaner Professional comes with other great features to clean and optimize your PC. It will also help speed up your computer, boost your online privacy, clear up valuable space, and run a health check, and more. 

You can try CCleaner Professional and its Driver Updater for free and use it for 14 days to see how you get along. Since you don't have to enter any card details you can leave the trial at the end of the period with no fuss. It can't quite wipe down your screen for you but it can certainly give your computer a big spring clean inside, making it run faster and more efficiently.

FAQs

  • Why is my Windows 10 running slow?

    Every version of Windows has quirks. Windows 10 is no different. There are many factors that slow down this operating system, including insufficient RAM, full hard drives, performance settings, irregular updates and more.

  • How do you fix a slow computer?

    Getting a slow PC fixed partly depends on its specs and operating system. More than this, you need to understand what kinds of problems impact all computers, such as full hard drives, viruses and malware and more.