How to Download Driver Easy Pro and Update Drivers Safely

A 62 MB updater with an eight-million driver database: how to scan, which drivers to update first, and how to keep a rollback path for the ones that matter.

Driver Easy Pro is a 62 MB driver updater in the Software section of the catalog, under Drivers. It scans every device on the machine against a database of several million drivers, downloads the mismatches and installs them. Used carefully it saves an evening of hunting for chipset and network drivers on a fresh Windows install. Used carelessly it replaces the one driver that was actually fine.

What you need

• Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11, 64-bit recommended.
• 62 MB for the install, plus a few hundred megabytes of driver packages during a first full scan.
• An internet connection, unless you use the offline scan feature described below.
• A restore point. Create one before the first scan, every time.

Download and install

1. Open the Driver Easy Pro item page from the Software section and download the archive.
2. Unpack it with 7-Zip or WinRAR to a folder rather than running the executable straight from inside the archive.
3. Run the installer as administrator and keep the default path.
4. Launch the application as administrator as well. Without elevated rights it can detect drivers but not install them.

Scan and update in the right order

1. Start a scan and let it finish before touching anything. A first scan on an older machine can take several minutes.
2. Update chipset and system device drivers first, then graphics, then audio and network, then peripherals. Reboot when it asks, even if it does not seem necessary.
3. Use Update Selected rather than Update All on a working machine. A full automatic pass is fine on a fresh install, and a bad idea on a system that already runs well.
4. Write down the versions you are replacing for graphics and audio drivers. That list is your rollback plan.
5. Rescan afterwards to confirm the entries moved to the up-to-date list and that no device shows a warning in Device Manager.

Offline scanning

The offline scan mode exists for machines with no network connection, which is exactly the situation where you need a working network driver. It writes an inventory of the installed hardware to a file, you run the scan on a second machine with internet access, and then install the downloaded packages on the target PC. Do this before reinstalling Windows on a laptop whose Wi-Fi driver Windows does not carry.

When not to use it

• Do not replace a manufacturer-tuned Wi-Fi, touchpad or audio driver while it is working. Vendor packages often carry fixes that generic builds lack.
• Do not update the graphics driver moments before a long gaming session. Update it afterwards, when a black screen costs nothing.
• Do not let a driver updater run from a scheduled task on a machine you use for work. Updates belong to a moment you choose.

If a driver update leaves the machine unstable, boot into Safe Mode, open Device Manager, and roll the driver back to the previous version, which Windows keeps for exactly this reason. The restore point is the second line of defence if the rollback button is greyed out.