Product Reviews

Driver Genius Professional 2007 is a driver- management tool that aims to take the graft out of keeping your PC or laptop up to date. Windows XP and Vista include a staggering array of device drivers to make it compatible with the largest possible range of hardware. Furthermore, when you buy a new peripheral, there's usually a CD containing the driver among the chaff of papers and accessory cables. Drivers can have a substantial impact on hardware performance, particularly for graphics cards, and should be updated throughout a product's lifetime. The drivers included with Windows or shipped with the device are usually outdated.

Ensuring

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you have the latest device drivers for all your hardware is a time-consuming process, but this is made simple by Driver Genius Professional. Once you've activated the driver update tool, you simply select your operating system. The program then checks the version numbers of your installed drivers against those most recently available and prompts you to download new drivers where it finds a discrepancy. This means that although you don't have to do the looking, you still have complete control over what Driver Genius downloads and installs.

A handy driver backup tool is provided, which locates all your drivers and stores them in a Zip file, a self-extracting archive or an auto-install file or simply bundles them into a location of your choice. Having your drivers in this form is useful if you want to reinstall your system from scratch, but it could also save your bacon if a driver becomes corrupt or an updated version results in instability. An additional diagnostic tool helps you identify problem drivers.

Driver Genius does its job well, is easy to use and provides more than just a driver update facility. It's good value and undoubtedly useful, but it's still a luxury and not a necessity.