Windows 10: What is a good freeware Driver Updater utility for Windows 10 (x64)?

Hello

What is a good freeware (or freemium) Driver Updater utility for Windows 10 (x64)?

e.g. Are these sort of things safe, reliable and free from malware?
- Driver Booster
- Driver Genius
- DriverPack
- Snappy Driver Installer

Background
I have a 6-yearold Samsung Series 7 Ultra Notebook (NP740U3E-S04UK).
I have been having HUGE problems with brightness control and keyboard (e.g. Alt/F4 started to fail). See my other thread ( Why has my Laptop suddenly started running slow ).
After literally days and days battling with all this, I have worked out that if I don't update windows to beyone v1809 (KB4586793 - October 2018), then I can still control my laptop's screen brightness using Fn/F2 and FnF3. However it is also important to NOT apply the latest version of the driver for the AMD graphics card, or I will be locked out of the computer completely.

Samsung has been extremely unhelpful.
The free AMD update utility turns my laptop into a brick.

It is clear that Windows Update is not updating ALL the new drivers for my hardware, so it looks like I need a special utility to update them all. I am worried that if I don't update my Windows 10 to beyond v1808, that I may have other problems (e.g. the computer getting hacked, or applications like msOffice may not work correctly...)

Thanks

J

:)

 

What is a good freeware Driver Updater utility for Windows 10 (x64)?

Hello

What is a good freeware (or freemium) Driver Updater utility for Windows 10 (x64)?

e.g. Are these sort of things safe, reliable and free from malware?
- Driver Booster
- Driver Genius
- DriverPack
- Snappy Driver Installer

Background
I have a 6-yearold Samsung Series 7 Ultra Notebook (NP740U3E-S04UK).
I have been having HUGE problems with brightness control and keyboard (e.g. Alt/F4 started to fail). See my other thread ( Why has my Laptop suddenly started running slow ).
After literally days and days battling with all this, I have worked out that if I don't update windows to beyone v1809 (KB4586793 - October 2018), then I can still control my laptop's screen brightness using Fn/F2 and FnF3. However it is also important to NOT apply the latest version of the driver for the AMD graphics card, or I will be locked out of the computer completely.

Samsung has been extremely unhelpful.
The free AMD update utility turns my laptop into a brick.

It is clear that Windows Update is not updating ALL the new drivers for my hardware, so it looks like I need a special utility to update them all. I am worried that if I don't update my Windows 10 to beyond v1808, that I may have other problems (e.g. the computer getting hacked, or applications like msOffice may not work correctly...)

Thanks

J

 

What is a good freeware Driver Updater utility for Windows 10 (x64)?

Intel's driver & support assistant is okay for Intel hardware that is still supported but, for older hardware, it will just tell you to search in its legacy section
Intel download centre - Drivers and software

If the hardware that came with your computer was still supported by the computer maker than the computer maker would be the best source of driver updates.
- Many computer makers often change the drivers provided by Intel to match their own hardware's particular characteristics so they would be better than Intel during this period.
- Once hardware is out-of-support then you can try Intel's legacy section for their hardware and you might find similar legacy sections by other hardware OEMs but you will always have to be concerned about lack of full compatibility.
- The third-party driver sourcing utilities you refer to might get the most appropriate driver for out of-support hardware or they might just take the first answer they can find. Your own search of any hardware maker's legacy drivers section will always be more thorough then any third-party driver sourcing utility would be.
- Windows update, with its MS update catalog, can often be a good source of drivers but has been known to get it wrong even for supported hardware.

It is easy to get in a mess with driver versions when things start to go wrong. Personally, I keep a copy of all driver installation files I've downloaded from the computer maker even when they've been superceded by later drivers. And I backup my installed drivers as well
Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials
None of this will guarantee that I will always be able to keep legacy hardware running but it gives me a good chance.

I lost brightness control on a 5 year old computer upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I was able to find a driver [in the MS update catalog] that restored brightness control. I decided this was down to extreme cleverness on my part but it was really just a stroke of luck that MS still had that particular driver available.

All the best,
Denis

 

Freeware for mankind!

POV Ray is another good 3D image and animation software.

POV-Ray - The Persistence of Vision Raytracer

This site list a good number of freeware and shareware graphics and photo editiors of which some have already been listed here in this thread.

http://www.freebyte.com/graphicprograms/

At guru you can get benchmarks, tweaks, and other utilities along with vid card drivers and mobo chipset drivers.

Guru3D.com

Good list so far. *Big Grin