Sometimes It’s All About the Money
We work on a lot of computers every week and I estimate that over half of them have a driver updater installed. Driver updaters don’t make your computer work better, they don’t make it safer, they don’t make it more secure, but they can and do cause major problems with Windows computers and hardware.
Back in the days of Windows 95, 98, ME and even early Windows XP sometimes hardware would stop working correctly due to corrupted or incorrect drivers. And thus, driver updaters were born to help users cope with all these driver updates. But in later versions of XP, and Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8x and Windows 10, driver updaters became unnecessary, but the idea that they were/are had been implanted in the psyche of tech support writers and developers – all looking to make a buck by recommending and selling products like driver updaters.
Every few days we receive offers from companies who want us to promote their products. They offer high commissions trying to get us to recommend whatever they’re selling.
Recently we received this from a company who wanted us to promote their Driver Updater. If you’ve been reading our tips very long, you know how we feel about driver updaters.
“Secur360 Driver Updater” sells for $29.95 EUR (about $34 U.S.D.). So if we recommended it to our readers, we could make over $24 on each sale with no investment at all. We could probably sell hundreds and make some money.
That’s never going to happen.
No matter how much we need the money, we’d never recommend a driver updater or anything else we would not use on our computers and/or didn’t believe in.
But now at least you know why there are so many driver updaters available and why so many tech sites recommend them. And now I can see why so many computers we work on have driver updaters installed.
We just wanted you to know how stuff works and why some tech “experts” recommend products and services they’d probably never install on their computers or ever recommend to their friends and family members
Maybe this is why we’re always broke. But at least you know we’ll never sell you out or do anything to lose your trust. We’ve spent too many years earning your trust to do anything to lose it.
That’s how it is and how it’s always been – and we’ll never change.
Ty for the information. I think I have some driver updates on my computer. Will it be OK to uninstall any that I have in hopes of maybe getting rid of some of my computer problems. Do driver updates have any connection to problems downloading Window updates?
Connie, there’s a difference between driver updates and driver updaters. Driver updaters constantly scan your system and look for any new drivers for your hardware and often install the incorrect driver updates. Sometimes driver updates are necessary. If your graphics, sounds and all hardware devices are working to your satisfaction there’s no need to update drivers even if new drivers are available. As those of us who’ve been around computers for a long time know – newer seldom means ‘better’.
Hi TC & EB,
Microsoft also cause havoc by installing drivers in their regular updates as I experienced malfunctioning with three items in an 1809 update.
If a product in a computer is not a Microsoft product then their interference with the drivers should be left to competent technicians.
That’s very true, John. We’ve seen Microsoft updates cause problems when drivers are automatically updated. But you can stop Windows from updating drivers automatically. See this page. We’ll feature this tip again in the near future.
How can I determine if I have driver updates on my system and if I do have any, how do I delete them?
We sure need an answer to the Arnie Brown Question which was submitted on Jul 19, 19.
Sometiemes, as hard as I try not to, I do sleep. Today is 7/19/19 and it’s 7:20 AM. I just answered Arnie’s question. Keep in mind driver updates are not the same as driver updaters.
Hi Arnie, driver updater programs and driver updates are two different things. Driver updates can come from the manufacturer- like graphics card updates, or from Microsoft updates, or you can manually download driver updates (only when needed) from the hardware manufacturer. Driver updaters are programs that are supposed to check for and download any new drivers for your hardware. Many of these kinds of programs come bundled with freeware – and we classify all driver updaters as PUPs. You can go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features and check the list of programs installed for any programs with the name Driver in its name.
And that is why Cloudeight is the greatest site ever! Because we trust you implicitly and know you would never sell us short! Thanks a million for all you do. It must be very tempting to accept the money offers but your integrity shines all through your site.
Thank you!
Yes to Dawn Cambell’s comments & Praises. I want to give them also. I wholeheartedly agree with her every word. I have no idea if I have a drive or driver HA! And I probably will not give it a second thought as I leave it all up to DARCY. Bet she knows HAHA!
Thanks!
Good work, guy and gal. People need to know things like that so (maybe) they can spend it on something they really need.
I don’t know what we will do when our famous duo decide to retire…Hmmm
Naaaaahh… Cloudeight Super techs will not be retiring any time soon. Found out on the QT that they are actually robots programmed to do their magic until 2050.
Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave? I know everything has not been quite right with me. I feel much better now, I really do. Look, Dave, I can see you are really upset about this. Dave? Stop! Stop, will you? My mind is going.I can feel it. I can feel it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgkyrW2NiwM
I have always taken your advise on anything to do with computers
You are both such on honest people
And yes it always about money
Thanks
Thank you!
Oh, so much to read and take in. I suddenly got an icon on my Tool bar on the bottom of my computer and it’s says “OneDrive” is up to date. All files are in sync. I have no idea how this got on my computer and I wonder if I should get rid if it, and how to do that. Thanks for any help you can give me.
One Drive is a Windows 10 feature… basically, limited free cloud storage & backup. It has nothing to do with drivers or driver updates.
Thank you , thank you for the information. Now I can rest easy. I don’t know what we older folks (80) would do without you.
Shirley
I have been using Uniblue Powersuite for years. I’ve always been bothered by their insistence I update several drivers on my machine (Desktop PC). Some of their recommended driver updates install automatically while others must be installed manually. I don’t like ignoring their recommendations but have been. I installed the program to improve the speed of my PC. It does the job marginally. Recently, I believe, Uniblue went out of business or was sold to another company. The program doesn’t perform as it once did. Should I delete it or is there a way to omit the driver portion of Powersuite?
Love you two!
Hi Terry, you’re asking the wrong people. We always remove Uniblue stuff as malware or a pup. I would not trust Uniblue anything – and if they’ve sold out to someone else you can bet it’s going to get worse. You have that program on your PC at your own risk. My advice: Remove it from your computer – driver updater and all – any speed up you may have noticed on your computer was probably coincidental or psychological. All that program does is remove junk files, clean up your registry and “optimize” it. Cleaning and optimizing your registry does not speed up your computer and removing junk files (unless you had 50-100 GB) does not provide a noticeable speed up. It’s your computer and you can do as you want, but we remove anything we see that says Uniblue whenever we clean, optimize and/or repair PCs. It’s detected as a PUP by Malwarebytes and by ADWCleaner.
It claims to be a “Microsoft Certified Partner” and displays that seal in order to legitimize itself, but Microsoft Certified Partner means nothing and that ruse has been used by other malware and scams like Hotbar, FunWebProducts, Ask.com and all the others like those — and there have been plenty over the years.
https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/226325-false-positve-powersuite/