Whenever our computer starts to act up, we tend to blame it on anything but its drivers. In fact, outdated or missing drivers might well be one of the reasons why your PC or laptop’s performance is slower than what it used to be or why some hardware component is behaving strangely. DriverPack Online can check all your computer’s drivers, determine which are missing or need updating and perform the entire update process for you automatically.
The program works as a wizard, offering you a set of screens with simple questions to help you go through the update process smoothly and help the program to decide what’s best for your computer. If you have detected a specific issue (slow gameplay, virus infection, hardware not functioning correctly, etc.), you can select the right one from the different drop-down menus you’ll be presented with. Otherwise, if you’re not too sure what’s troubling your computer, you may want to let the program to “Do everything automatically”. This option will check all possible scenarios and will fix any driver-related issue affecting your computer.
Note, however, that a “full update” may take quite a while to complete. And that is probably the only drawback of not only this tool but any tool working with finding, downloading, and installing drivers. During my test, the “Do everything automatically” option required the best part of an hour to update whatever drivers were necessary. So be patient and, as DriverPack says, “This can take some time, but it’s worth it…” Besides, interrupting any driver update process is one of the worst decisions you can make, even though the program creates a restoration point before changing anything in case you decide to return your PC to its previous status.
One of its great assets is the program’s Expert Mode where you find useful tips that pop up on a panel on the right at every step of the way. They will explain you what to do and how to do it right, as well as useful information about the program’s functionality. There you will also find DriverPack Protect, a clean-up and protection module that will inform you about potentially harmful files and other possible threats that may be slowing down your PC or putting it at risk – it doesn’t need to be always a “drivers issue”!
As its name implies, DriverPack Online requires you to have an active internet connection for the program to work, as it looks for your drivers and downloads them in real time. There are other options, namely DriverPack Offline Network and DriverPack Offline Full, which perform the same basic function but using a previously downloaded driver package instead.
The program, in any of its variants, is absolutely free to download and use, so there is no excuse not to have it installed on your desktop in case your system begins to act a little strange…
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