Hardware tips -> Where to download drivers for my computer?

Computers do not function alone. There are many external devices that are connected to the computer for various reasons. For example, Modem, Sound Card, Network card, printer, scanner and many other devices are connected to the computer. When we buy these hardware devices they come with the drivers (usually in CDs). The manufacturers of these devices develop these drivers. Because to use these devices these drivers are necessary. We usually keep these CDs safely when we buy them. But as time passes, we may forget where we kept those CDs. When these drivers are required later where do we look for such drivers. Consider these scenarios:

1. You formatted your hard disk and reinstall the OS. So you need to reinstall all the drivers for your external hardware.
2. You buy a used computer from someone but forget to get the driver CDs.
3. Your computer has all the drivers, but you want to upgrade the drivers. But you are not sure about the driver name and the device manufacturer.

To solve all these issues you need to download drivers from somewhere. There are many websites such as

• www.windrivers.com
• www.windowsdrivers.com
• www.driverguide.com
• www.pcdrivers.com

If you know which driver you need you can goto any of these websites and download the appropriate driver. If you don not know which driver you want then these websites will not be of any help. Therefore you should first know about the drivers in your computer.

Driver upgrade utilities:


If you would like to test the drivers in your computer and see if they are functioning properly or needs to be updated then you can use the Driver Detective utility. Goto www.drivershq.com . You will see the 'Driver Detective' link. If you click on this link, this utility will check all the external devices that are currently connected to your computer and list all the drivers. If the list shows 'Bad' for any of your device such as scanner for example, then the driver for your scanner needs to be installed. If you click this link the appropriate driver will be installed.

Another such utility is Driver wizard software. You can download this utility from http://drivermagic.com/p/nph-home.php This utility will also check all the drivers in your computer and you can install any drivers that is BAD.
Belare Advisor is another utility that can be used to detect all your hardware from your computer. You can download this utility from www.belare.com