DriverMax 11.12

★ Winner of Best Driver Tool in 2017.

Overview

It is common knowledge that every computer requires drivers for its hardware. However in most cases people tend to rarely (if ever) update those drivers and in the long run that can lead to a loss of performance and possibly even various security vulnerabilities.

DriverMax helps alleviate this problem by making it easy to find out which drivers need to be updated, and then download those updates.

Installation

One of the only parts of the installation that you'll need to take notice of is a prompt that will ask you whether you'd like to install the AVG Security Toolbar on your browser and also change your default search provider and homepage. Other than that, it is worth keeping an eye out for the option to pin DriverMax to your taskbar.

DriverMax supports Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP and 2003.

Interface

When you first launch DriverMax you'll be greeted by a fairly simple interface with a main content section and a row of navigation options right above it that will allow you to quickly scan for updates, manage your driver downloads, and backup your drivers.

There is also an option to view the best Windows hardware in terms of performance and popularity.

Further options can be accessed via the big red 'Menu' button in the upper right corner. Frankly speaking the interface may not appear too polished but it is definitely very functional.

Pros

The features that DriverMax provides are by far its strongest suit. To sum it up, it does exactly as advertised with the absolute minimum amount of fuss.

Additionally, it also provides the option to identify unknown hardware, rollback drivers to a previous version, and even restore them all from a system recovery point.

The option to backup drivers and save them externally is also handy for clean installing a computer.

Initially you'll need to register but that won't cost a dime. In fact, the only thing that 'Pro' (i.e. paid) users can do that free users can't is download driver updates within DriverMax itself. Free users will have to do so via a browser window that will open when and direct them to the updated driver..

Cons

Outside of its slight lack of polish, the truth is that DriverMax doesn't leave anything to be desired. It is easy to grasp and honestly does simplify the task of updating drivers immensely.

Alternatives

The main competitor DriverMax is up against is SlimDrivers. Both software are very similar to one another, but DriverMax does have a slightly better array of options to backup drivers and then restore them later.

Other software in the same line tend to only allow users to check which drivers are out of date, but don't enable them to download updates.

Conclusion

DriverMax has without a doubt established itself as one of the best software of its kind. It may be facing some stiff competition from SlimDrivers, but it is able to hold its own when compared head to head and performs its task admirably well.