Managing hardware devices is a chore that many computer users are unaware that they should be doing. However, device drivers can cause numerous computer errors ranging from malfunctions, conflicts, and system crashes. A faulty device driver could be corrupt or it could plain and simply have bugs in the code that interfere with other processes. Manufacturers learn about bugs and update their device drivers accordingly. However, it’s up to the user to find the updates and install them on their system.
Your computer comes with a Device Manager where you can go to begin this tedious and time-consuming process. As you work your way through the list of installed devices, you may begin to think, “There’s got to be a better way.” Fortunately, there is. Several different driver management utilities make updating your device drivers easy.
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Download Driver Talent for Windows
Driver Talent is a utility from Drive The Life that scans your computer’s hardware, identifies the currently installed device drivers, and provides you with links to updated drivers which are found on the Drive The Life website.
Of the various utilities on the market, this one isn’t the most intuitive. For example, Driver Talent recommends the use of a download manager when downloading from the Drive The Life website. In addition, you’ll need to be able to unzip the downloads as each device driver comes in a ZIP file. You will need a program such as WinZip. Other utilities are more user-friendly with everything you need to be bundled into the software. In addition, Driver Talent is not currently Vista compatible. If you are running Windows 7, 10, and 11, this product is ready for you just yet.
Driver Talent is unique in that it allows you to run the software on a machine that doesn’t have Internet access. While the procedure for doing so is fairly complicated, this option addresses a dilemma that many computer users face: how do you keep your non-Internet connected computers updated with the latest device drivers?
In the old days, you’d have to identify the hardware, use an Internet-connected computer to do research, download device driver files individually, burn them to CD-ROM, and then manually install each device driver on the other machine, one at a time.
With Driver Talent, you can install Driver Talent on the machine without Internet access and run it in Advanced mode. Once the scan is complete, simply save the results as: results.htm. From there, copy the results.htm file to your Internet-connected computer and launch Driver Talent. Click the Upload Results button and you’ll see all of the hardware details of the other computer along with a list of suggested device drivers.
Driver Talent is a product from Ostoto Software that detects PCI, AGP, ACP, and USB devices as well as modems, motherboards, monitors, processors, parallel printers, PCMIA devices, and any installed Plug and Play devices. Once detected, the software compares the device drivers for each device with a database containing updated device drivers. If a more current version exists, the results page provides you with a link where you can download the updated driver.
While Driver Talent has its shortcomings, it also has its strengths. If you’re not running Windows 7, 10, and 11 and are comfortable downloading and installing files on your own rather than having the software do it all for you, or if you need to update drivers for a non-Internet connected PC, Driver Talent is a reliable, fast way to take charge of an otherwise tedious task.
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Also, see our full list of driver download tools and our featured Free Driver scan tool here.
