DriverFinder is by DeskToolsSoft, and it claims to remove all the hassle of updating hardware drivers for your pc. Being on the web a lot, you learn to take everything with a grain of salt, and knowing how complicated drivers can be, I was more worried about what problems it would cause, rather than if it could actually find and install the latest drivers for my hardware. So let’s see how it stacks up.
Honest DriverFinder Review
The installation process was simple and quick, requiring a minimum amount of hard drive space and interaction from me. Always a good sign. For testing purposes, I uninstalled my video card drivers to see if DriverFinder could catch it. Upon starting up, I immediately ran a scan, and voila, missing video card drivers. It also said I was missing a few other things, but I hadn’t noticed any issues with them, so I can’t say either way. The interface is acceptable, but could use some more work. It’s just not very eye-pleasing. It looks generically like any program you’d have used in 2004 in Windows XP. But all the basic tools of the program are there: scanning, backing up, restoring, proxy settings. The interface is usable, just not beautiful. That’s not a huge issue, since you (hopefully) won’t be staring at it all day, but it is a downside.
DriverFinder claims to support thousands of brands and products, so I tested it on 3 different computers: my brand new self built desktop, my asus eee pc netbook, and my nine year old dell dimension. It ran well on each and found a few missing drivers on all three, so the compatibility claims seem valid. Of course, supporting every single driver, product, and configuration out there is impossible so don’t expect a miracle if you have a very odd configuration.
Support is a key issue in software like this, so let’s see how DriverFinder stacks up. Some people report that DeskToolsSoft report can be a little slow in responding, but when I wrote in asking a technical question about the program, I received a reply in about 4 hours. Not bad. They also have live-chat and knowledge database on their site, if you prefer to use that. The live-chat representative was friendly and helpful although I don’t think english was his or her first language. The database seems to have a good amount of articles, and they are clearly written and have images to make sure you can see what they’re talking about.
DriverFinder – Conclusion
DeskToolsSoft wants 29.95 for a year license of use on up to 3 computers. This seems to be the going rate for driver updating software these days. It really depends on how well it works for you and if that’s worth not having the hassle of finding and updating the drivers yourself. Comparing this to other programs it seems to be above-average, but not the best. Support is always an issue, compatibility can always be improved, and the interface needs a makeover. DriverFinder is a relatively good program that does what it promises well, if not perfectly.
Click here to visit DriverFinder official site
