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

ship69 · 16 Nov 2020

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

dalchina · 16 Nov 2020

Simple answer- don't use one by a 3rd party.

Search and you may find several discussions comparing these and concluding best not used. Certainly not routinely.

ship69 · 16 Nov 2020

dalchina said:

Simple answer- don't use one.
Search and you may find several discussions comparing these and concluding best not used. Certainly not routinely.

OK but it seems that when you run Windows Update, certain drivers start to fail and need to either be reinstalled or updated?
Windows 10 seems to have 100s and 100s of drivers. How then are we supposed to keep them all updated?

PS
What about the Intel Driver & Support Assistant (Intel® DSA)
Intel(R) Driver & Support Assistant
Still not good?

Try3 · 16 Nov 2020

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

ship69 · 16 Nov 2020

Thanks Dennis

I think Samsung have more or less abandoned us. The original software for updating they computers was called Samsung Update. It always was horribly unreliable if I run it now it is unbelievably clunky.

Samsugn Update
Firstly, it says somethink like "this computer can be updated by Windows Update".
Secondly, it then starts talking about very old versions of Windows (from memory: v15[something] and v16[something] - not a good sign! Then if you manage to find the computer model, it then tries to download about 2GB of files - which takes a very long time.... but worst, it the fails to then install them. So I then re-open Samsung Update and this time it seems to install everything... but there is something about an Intel ME driver that it pretends to install and then asks for a reboot, but after the reboot it wants to reinstall it again... ad infinitum.
TBH, I don't even know if it's worth running Samsung Update at all.

What do you recommend I do about my brightness control problem? Should I:
A) Stop Windows 10 from updating beyond v1809? OR
B) Try to find an update to AMD Catalyst Control Install Manager - that isn't called Adrenaline?
C) Find a way to turn OFF my graphics card (and just use the on-board Intel 4000 thing)?

It really is a truly awful situation. No doubt the hardware manufacturers all want me to spend another GBP[600 to 1000?] to replace it, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with my hardware. It was pretty high-end when I bought it c.6 years ago. And with its 512GB SSD it's still reasonably fast, and has bucket-loads of disk space.

But I have wasted days and days and day on this problem.

The thing is that I absolutely MUST have screen brightness control back or I simply can't use the laptop in a large variety of situations. If it gets stuck at full brightness it is uncomfortable during the evenings and drains the batteries stupidly fast; but if stuck at minimum brightness then I can't read the screen!

I am getting desperate....

Try3 · 16 Nov 2020

Just to check my own understanding first
- Yours is a Samsung computer
- It came with an AMD display card, using AMD Catalyst Control Install Manager, as a second display card.
- It came with an Intel 4000 display card.

My suggestion is that you
1 Check with Samsung for any updated bios because that governs hardware interactions
2.1 Search the AMD support site for the AMD display card model rather than the 'Catalyst Control Install Manager' name
2.2 Search the MS update catalog for the AMD display card model
3 Search the Intel support site's legacy section for the Intel display card model
3.2 Search the MS update catalog for the Intel display card model

If you don't get anywhere then try searching by HardwareID to see if that gets you any further.
my ditty - search for drivers by HardwareID - TenForums

My current main computer [Dell Inspiron 7779, bought in December 2016] stopped being supported by Dell for Windows version updates after Version 1809. So the writing is on the wall for me as well. I have not had any problems so far [Version 1909].

Denis