4.1 / 5 - 362 Votes

File Size: 5.8MB

Developer: Innovative Solutions

Editors Review:

DriverMax Free Edition 7.29 scans, identifies, and updates your PC's hardware drivers automatically, one by one. It also backs up and restores drivers, keeps track of downloaded drivers, and identifies hardware without drivers. The freeware is limited to two driver downloads per day, at lower priority, and has other limitations compared to the Pro Edition.

Driver tune-up: A tune-up keeps your car running smoothly and reliably; updating your drivers does much the same for your PC. If updating drivers seems intimidating, DriverMax can take away some of the mystery.

Driver Ed: The freeware is fully functional, so the two-a-day limit is only an issue when you're updating drivers in batches. Nothing is stopping you from updating drivers the usual way (using the Device Manager), either.

Backup and restore: DriverMax can back up and restore your drivers, and it asks to create a Restore Point before installing new drivers.

Account required: You must create an online account to use DriverMax's Web-based tools. It's free, fairly unobtrusive, and relatively painless. But some users might care, so we're mentioning it.

Speed limits: Pro users have priority over free accounts in driver downloads. But a one-at-a-time, take-your-time approach to updating drivers usually means fewer crashes, conflicts, and blue screen errors.

The free version of DriverMax has some limits compared to the Pro edition, but once you've updated all your drivers and set DriverMax on daily watch for new updates, you're unlikely to need to install more than two drivers at a time. For us, the most important thing is to know when updates are available, and DriverMax Free Edition does the job nicely.

Publisher Description:

From Innovative Solutions: DriverMax is a powerful free utility which helps you download, update, backup and restore the drivers installed on your Windows PC. It automatically checks for more recent driver versions and identifies and installs missing drivers for unknown devices in your computer. Download all drivers from one place in just a few easy steps and keep your PC up to date. Backup drivers and keep all of them in one compressed file; restore them at a mouse click within a few minutes. This tool will save you a lot of time when reinstalling Windows, both on recent PCs and older computers for which the original CDs containing the drivers have been lost. You no longer have to track down old driver installation CDs, insert one installation CD after another or spend hours searching for drivers on the Internet. DriverMax is able to display a detailed report about all installed drivers (versions, release dates) and provide you with Windows Experience Index rating information before you purchase new hardware.

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