Windows 10: Anyone know a legit (non-scam/junk mail) drivers source/site?

...but if you can find a way onto the device maker's FTP site...

...you may find some very old and obscure hardware drivers!

The FTP Site Boneyard : Free Software : Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

"the FTP Boneyard"

Sometimes, entering the FTP site using a cached Google entry drops an anonymous FTP login that you cannot do manually (sign in with username anonymous and your email address as password)

Just went to:

All Laptop Drivers: Request Driver

Which is quite a useful site, and downloaded 3DP Chip* to backup and check and potentially update my drivers. The site warns you to watch out for adware in the setup program, but I found none. I do run a modified hosts file though, so I may be protected.

* :: 3DP Chip :: 3DP Software (3DP Chip / Net / Bench)

Seems free and OK to me

 

I use Auslogic Driver Updater it is not free
It sits in your Taskbar monitoring your drivers
Once it finds one out of date and one to replace it
It downloads and installs it for you

 

I have found Station-Drivers to be an excellent site for free drivers.

No scamming, no pressing for fees or other such stuff.

 

It looks nice but some categories are just empty.

 

Hi there
I HATE this type of Sneakerware -- all these other sites are just SCAMS - theu sucker you in and then to use the bit you need you have to usually "Go Pro" --i.e PAY. Avoid like the plague.

A decent way is to find the drivers ID by going into the EVENT and seeing the &xxxxx stuff. Then Google for that and often you will get a link to the drivers.

For example






Hardware drivers are invariable FREE - the only check on some manufacturers sites is that the site might check to see if the hardware is actually on your system before letting you download - but usually that's not the case.

If in USA / Europe - try the ASIAN sites as they often have drivers available you don't see on the European / USA manufacturers sites.

 

No one is going to provide such an enormous service for free, that would be impossible to maintain.
Free versions are good to find out, what driver you are missing, so you can download it elsewhere.
But they are so eager to find new drivers, they sometimes find bad instead, so backup is mandatory.

 

Hi there.

All these sites do exactly what I suggested above - from the device / driver ID (gleaned from the events panel) they then build up a database.

Anybody as a user could do this easily themselves - especially when only looking for one or two drivers.

Seems the art of "Googling" is becoming a lost cause these days !!!! -- Ah well it's only YOUR OWN money you are wasting --for nothing.

Cheers
jimbo

 

I've always hated that there are so many crappy driver updater software that want you to pay them money.

I'm currently using Driver Pack Solutions and Snappy Driver Installer to update as well as packs of drivers for the various Windows OSes (not really an updater software, just massive packs collected together by the community and referred to as driver packs). Both are 100% free, just be sure to uncheck any additional unwanted software when using DPS and you should have no issues.

 

DPS recommends unsigned drivers, which can make Windows un-bootable, that alone is not good. *Zip
It also offers updates from other brands to force new versions, not much different from crappy driver software.

 

@ TairikuOkami: Well, to each his own, I've never had issues with either. DPS offers both signed and unsigned drivers. Microsoft's driver signing requirements are ridiculous, I use whatever driver works best in my system, signed or not. Updates from other brands, a driver is just a driver for the most part,and may or may not be brand-specific. Many drivers can work on multiple brands/systems/components. SDI does also offer unsigned drivers, but they are clearly marked as such.

Edit: It's also important to note that many devices, especially older legacy devices, only ever had unsigned drivers released for them (mostly before Vista was released, when MS started tightening down on their driver requirements). Many manufacturers have only ever released unsigned drivers for some of their components. An unsigned driver can work as well as a signed driver, but of course it also increases your risk of malware, system being hijacked, and they are easily modifiable. You just have to be certain that whatever driver you use is safe and untainted.