Driver Genius Professional
Reviewed August, 2010
| What’s It Do?
Driver Genius detects and backs up all installed drivers, compressing backup to a ZIP file, self-extracting file, or independent auto installer program. One click restores all backed up drivers automatically or via command line on multiple PCs with the same hardware configuration. The database contains more than 30,000 device drivers, including motherboard, sound board, video bard, network card, modem, mouse, keyboard, scanner, printer, digital devices, etc. Driver Genius also locates drivers no longer in use and uninstall them. Daily updates are available on the Web site and the database can be synchronized with the latest drivers using the Live Update program. Does it do what it promises? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: Absolutely! The Web Site makes only a single claim: Driver Genius Professional improves PC performance with a powerful driver manager for Windows that backs up, restores, and updates your device drivers automatically. I found everything in that promise to be 100% accurate. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: Yes and no. It promises to find the out-of-date drivers on my computer and replace them with updated versions. It did so, but afterwards several other software programs on my computer were adversely affected, and in one case the driver was installed in the wrong place. However, it is quite possible that the fault lies with the driver manufacturers rather than with Driver Genius. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: Yes, Driver Genius will quickly scan one's computer, identifies all of the installed drivers and, by the information contained within the driver file, determines if an update is needed and is available. Reviewer 2 - Peter Royle: Yes. Driver Genius Professional allows you managing drivers from one main interface, backing them up, installing new ones, updating the older ones, and uninstalling drivers for devices that are no longer connected. In reinstalling Windows, one of the more tedious tasks is installing the drivers for all devices. With a recent backup on a drive other than the main C:\ drive (a data drive, for example, or a USB key), one can restore all those drivers, instead of having to hunt them down one-by-one. Was it easy to install? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: Yes. It is a relatively small 9.52MB download which took only 17 seconds to download on a reasonably fast broadband connection, but did take 15.1MB of disc space. Installation was fast and smooth using the program's own Application Wizard and it asked before placing icons on the desktop nor did it attempt to place itself in my startup file-both of which I applaud it for not doing. The registration was a simple copy and paste of the registration number, and there was no configuration needed. It placed itself in my system with no degradation of performance, boot times, etc. The EULA was by far the shortest, most simple and easily understood licensing agreement I have ever seen, and provides a single license but use on two computers. In short, the installation process and EULA should both be models of how a software program should be written and licensed, and demonstrates right from the start that this is a developer who has the end user first in his mind. And, just for the record, this program uninstalls as flawlessly as it installs, leaving only a few fragments in the Registry; again, an example of well written code. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: Yes, I was able to download and install the 10 MB file with only a minor bit of confusion. As soon as the program was installed, I had it scan for out-of-date drivers. It scanned 126 drivers, 14 of which it said were out of date. It then said "To completely update all 14 drivers on your computer, it is highly recommended that you register your download of Driver Genius." I clicked Yes to register, but to my surprise that brought me to the company's Web site to allow me to purchase Driver Genius. There was no apparent way to register my copy. Only after I had closed the irrelevant browser window did I see a small box behind that window where I could register. I put in my registration code, which restarted Driver Genius. I might add that even if I didn't already have a registration code and had just downloaded the program to try it out, it would make little sense to bring me to a window to buy the software before I've had a chance to use it. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: Yes, Driver Genius installs very quickly with no problems. During my testing, an updated version became available and it too installed quickly over the existing installation. The EULA appears to allow for installation on all computers in a household for "personal use". Use in a commercial environment would require separate license keys for each workstation or server. Reviewer 4 - Peter Royle: Yes, it is a standard Windows installation which allowed me to place the program files and shortcuts in the locations of my choice. I appreciate that It did not install any undocumented start-up programs or services without asking permission. The EULA (End Users Licence Agreement) is quite short and contains almost none of the usual legal jargon that we are usually subjected to in these documents. The licence is specific to one user: either on two different computers belonging to that user, or on one computer, but available to that user on another computer on his network. In both cases, only the licensed customer can use the program. Good points. Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: I think that for the first time in over 20 years of writing software reviews I can honestly say that this is a nearly perfect program. Those who are familiar with my reviews know that I am often harsh in my criticism and the word "perfect" is not in my vocabulary-at least until recently when I have found one other such program, but Driver Genius Professional does one thing and does it perfectly, using a minimum of resources and very little user interaction in a highly sophisticated and well written program that is not only efficient and effective, but attractive as well. Until now, I have cautioned against updating drivers unless there is a definite reason to do so. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! While I might still offer that advice generally, I do need to rethink it in regard to driver updates, at least if using Driver Genius Professional. In the past, most driver update programs were, at best, ripe with errors and faulty driver updates, and, at worst, simply scamware, i.e. they would find a ton of supposedly bad drivers in a free scan and then charge to locate the supposedly bad drivers. It was only paying money did one find that most of the updates they found did not apply to their drivers. Driver Genius Professional found 18 drivers needing updating on my computer. Each of the updates it found were not third party drivers but OEM (original equipment drivers) which it offered to download from the actual manufacturer's site. I allowed it to install each of the drivers it found and, not only were there no problems, but one serious problem was repaired. For over a year, my hard drive controllers have been stuck in PIO mode rather than the much faster DMA mode due to a few too many crashes (which can cause this). Without going into technical details, PIO mode is very, very slow and the CPU winds up running at 100% almost constantly. I tried to find updates to the drivers for these devices but was unsuccessful. I tried every Registry hack and other "fixes" on the Internet, also unsuccessful. I even took the computer to a computer repair facility that I know and trust, and that too proved to be unsuccessful. In short, after allowing Driver Genius Professional to install the updates it found both my primary and secondary controllers were back in DMA mode. It was like having a new computer! I would have paid $100.00 (or more) for this program had I known it would repair this problem alone. Overall, after updating all of the drivers found, my computer does seem to be performing much smoother and my broadband connection has stabilized. Now, I could go on to talk about its backup program which is excellent and that allows backup and restore of drivers. I could talk about the attractive and intuitive GUI (Graphic User Interface), the speed in which it does its scans (10 seconds on my computer), its built in scheduler, its low use of resources, its huge database of drivers, its built in "Live Update", and the excellent customer support I received. Instead, I will just say that based on my experience with this program, it is a winner! Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: The software is very easy to use. All I had to do was click on the Scan button. The program then scanned my computer's drivers and identified those that were outdated. It reported its findings and presented me with a Fix Now button. Clicking on that button prompted the program to download the updated drivers. Once the drivers were downloaded, I simply clicked on Install, and Driver Genius installed the new drivers. The company is continuing to improve the program. For most of the time that the Neat Net Tricks Panel was testing Driver Genius, we were using version 9. Near the end of our testing period, the company introduced version 10 and I found it much clearer and easier to use. Yet another good point is Driver Genius's attention to safety. When one tells the program to install the updated drivers it has downloaded, a message appears recommending that the user create a system restore point before installing new drivers and asking whether the user wants to do so. If need be, the user can then restore his or her computer to the state it was in before the drivers were installed. More evidence of Driver Genius's concern with safety can be found in the options it offers. There is an option to have the program call up the user's antivirus program to scan for viruses "after the backup task is completed." Apparently the "backup task" refers to backing up the old drivers, although it would make more sense to scan the newly downloaded drivers. According to tech support, the current version cannot do what I've suggested, but they will add this to the next version. At any rate, I applaud Driver Genius's option to scan driver files with the user's antivirus program. When I submitted questions about Driver Genius 10 via a form on the company's Web site, a popup appeared letting me know that the message had been submitted and that I should expect a response within 12 hours. I contacted tech support several times, and all my messages received very prompt responses, even on a weekend. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: Keeping drivers up to date is an important maintenance action for any computer. Driver Genius is one of the fastest ways I've found to do so. The amount and depth of information available about the new drivers is significant. Driver Genius' database used to keep track of the drivers on one's system and their current state can be updated from within the running program itself with a simple button click. Driver scans can be scheduled to run at specific times as can the update itself. The user interface screen is very clean, simple and easy to understand. It displays a left panel navigation menu that allows one to perform the desired function with a simple click. One feature I really liked was the ability to look at the details of each individual driver before installing it. Clicking "show details" opens up an HTML page in one's browser that displays the information for that driver stored at www.driver-soft.com. The user interface is deceptively simple. There is a lot going on "under the hood" that one may not be aware of without drilling down through the menu structure. Under the "Options " menu's General tab, one can set the language (8 available), the display text size, and what activities will occur on startup, such as checking for new driver database, showing the splash screen and showing daily tips. The "Backup" tab allows one to set the backup type to a ZIP archive, a self extracting ZIP archive, or an auto installer. One can set the compression level to low, normal, maximum or none and split the resulting data backup by specifying the size of each section in kilobytes. This would be useful for spanning a large backup database across several CDs. The "Restore" menu provides several options for the restore, including the option to reboot the computer when done. There are also tabs for "Update", "Download", and a "Security" tab. While Driver Genius does not have its own antivirus program built in, the "Security" tab has a checkbox that will allow Driver Genius to call up an already installed antivirus program and run it after the backup is complete. The "Schedule" tab is a simple checkbox option to run a scheduled scan either daily, weekly or monthly and to select the day and time of the scheduled scan. Reviewer 4 - Peter Royle: The first time that Driver Genius ran, it downloaded its Drivers Database, which it could later use to carry out the other functions of the program.. It then ran a scan of my computer to find out what drivers are currently installed on my computer. Afterwards, it listed the drivers that are out of date, and for which there are updates in its database. At this point, I could uncheck any of the drivers that I did not wish to update, then click on the Fix Now button. This brought me to the Driver Download Manager to select which driver updates to download. I was able to view details of each and determine whether it was appropriate for my computer, the date of the driver, the Windows versions that it would work under, and so on. When I started the first update, Driver Genius popped up a suggestion that I create a Restore Point, and asked if I wanted to do so before installing any new drivers. This is an excellent idea. When you choose "Update Drivers" all the supported Windows Operating Systems that are supported by Driver Genius Professional are listed. In my case, Windows XP was selected by default. However, I need a printer driver for a Windows 7 in the house, and I had been unable to install it on that computer; so, on one of my scans, I chose Windows 7 instead. Among other things, this particular computer operates as a shared-printer server on my home network. The scan ran as usual, and since the printer in question is connected to this computer, it listed that printer. I checked the driver update details and downloaded the driver. It installed correctly on the Windows 7 compute, which now has access to that previously unavailable device. Support is available via on on-line support form. I was asked quite a few questions about the program, my computer, my licence, and so on. For each support request, including follow-up email correspondence, I received a reply within 12 hours. This is the turn-around time that was indicated by a pop-up whenever I used the online form. Weak points. Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: None. There really are no serious weaknesses. As minor points, it would be nice if there was not quite so long a lag between the time the splash screen appears and the program opens. It is only about 20 seconds, but I tend to be impatient. After all installations are finished, I would like to see that screen be removed or, at least, the Install button grayed out so as not to look still active. It would be helpful if there was a little more advice given as to which method to use in archiving driver backups and what might be the advantage of backing them up in a zip file or auto install method as opposed to the default. Finally, although the full description of the driver is given near the progress bar during the scan process, it would be helpful if the scan window were made larger to allow for full rather than truncated descriptions. As None of these suggestions are anything more than essentially cosmetic and do not detract from this excellent program. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: Some of the drivers Driver Genius installed did not work well with a few other programs I have on my computer. In particular Malwarebytes Anti-Malware had problems updating its database and produced several error messages; ClipMate apparently lost all the settings I had made; the printer driver at first was installed in the wrong place and would not work; and, when I tried to reboot, Windows hung. I wrote to tech support about some of the problems. They responded quickly, pointing out that they simply download the drivers from the manufacturer. If those drivers have problems, the manufacturer is to blame, not Driver Genius. Tech support seemed to be saying that if I downloaded and installed the drivers from the manufacturer without using Driver Genius, I'd experience the same problems. I think they are probably correct, since the installation process uses whatever the manufacturer provides. The only other weak point I found is that the customer- and tech-support staff seem to have a rather limited command of English (which is not surprising, since I think the company is based in China). Their tech support responses have been prompt and usually relevant but very brief. On at least one occasion, the customer support response seemed to suggest that the person hadn't adequately understood my clearly worded questions. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: None that I found during my testing. Reviewer 4 - Peter Royle: When I backed up a set of drivers, it did not remember my previously selected location, and went to its default (on C: Documents and Settings ...) I do not like to store backups on the C:\ drive, for that is where Windows itself is normally installed. If left there, they will be lost in the event of a system crash. In the Home screen, there is a section called "Scan History." This shows when the scan was last run and the number of: total drivers, up-to-date drivers and out-of-date drivers; however, a listing of all drivers or which ones are outdated or current is not displayed. I would like to be able to click on those items, and see which drivers are in any one of those lists. To be fair, I asked the support people if I could see the list of out-of-date drivers. They replied that the rescan is necessary as Driver Genius does not know what you have done to the system after you close the program. Other comments. Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: One might think that $29.95 is a lot of money for a program that may need to run once every six months or a year. That is rather like asking "Why get your teeth cleaned when you are just going to have to do it again in six months to a year?" More to the point, if this program is used just once and it finds drivers that needed updating, it will have paid for itself. I often use this space to talk about the developer's commitment to their programs. I had been using their previous version, Version 9, for almost four months and found it to be just as excellent as this latest version. Version 10 just arrived the first of August and while it had a shorter test period, I can honestly tell you that it only further improved further the previous version. In fact, it is faster and found two additional drivers that needed updating. This is a developer who not only takes pride in the program, but is committed to consistently looking for ways to improve the program. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: Driver Genius 10 is a vast improvement over version 9. For those who experience problems with out-of-date drivers, this program will probably make identifying and replacing those drivers very quick and simple. However, in the 24 years that I've been using Windows, I have very rarely if ever needed to update drivers. My old drivers almost always worked fine, even if they weren't the most recent. My feeling is that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and the problems I encountered while using Driver Genius 10 served to reinforce that belief. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: My testing began a couple of months ago with a previous version. At that time, Driver Genius found 243 drivers with 10 of them being out of date. It gave me the option to download them individually or all at once. It then offers to install those newly updated drivers and strongly suggests backing up all current drivers now in use. There are two options here: "backup currently used drivers" and "backup original Windows drivers". Installing the new drivers was as simple as selecting it and clicking install. Each new install pops up a new EULA from that manufacturer for approval. Some also required a restart to complete the installation. Since I was installing multiple new drivers I opted to delay the restart until all were done. The installations also triggered multiple pop-ups from to start up monitoring programs that I have running. After installing the newest version, Driver Genius 10 the scan indicated that there were no more out of date drivers. Apparently, nothing new was updated by the manufacturers. There was, of course, no "History" to view since nothing had been updated or downloaded by the newer version. Reviewer 4 - Peter Royle: One must be careful when installing new drivers. The main function of a driver is to allow the computer to find a device (such as keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer, scanner, etc.), connect to it, and let it do its work. One should have a restore point or some other method of going back to the preinstallation state in case that things do not work out. Driver Genius will find new drivers, and help do the installation, but it does not know if those drivers will necessarily be appropriate. I have a video card, for example, that does not work at all if I update the drivers for it. Since it ain't broke with the old drivers that it came with it half a decade ago, I don't fix it. Will you continue to use it? Reviewer 1 - Mark Snyder: Absolutely. I will never again own a computer without having it installed. In fact, it goes on my very short list of recommended programs. Reviewer 2 - Name Withheld By Request: No. Reviewer 3 - Dana Bostick: Yes, definitely. After a recent computer disaster, I found myself needing to start from scratch with a fresh install of Windows XP in a totally different machine. Since I was switching from an Intel based system to an AMD 64-bit system, many of the drivers were missing or simply did not work. Using Driver Genius, I was able to quickly update the drivers and get all my peripherals and networking up and running fairly quickly. Reviewer 4 - Peter Royle: Yes. I will use it every month or so to see if I need any driver updates. |
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home
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