« Return to Driver Downloads

Touchstone Software, the eSupport People, was acquired by Phoenix Technologies on April 10th, 2008 (NSDQ Symbol: PTEC)

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.

Download Driver Wizard!

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.

Driver Wizard is a utility from Driver Magic 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 Driver Magic website.

Of the various utilities on the market, this one isn’t the most intuitive. For example, Driver Wizard recommends the use of a download manager when downloading from the Driver Magic 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 bundled into the software. In addition, Driver Wizard is not currently Vista compatible. If you are running Windows Vista, this product isn’t ready for you just yet.

Driver Wizard 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 the Driver Wizard, you can install Driver Wizard 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 Wizard. 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 Wizard is a product from TouchStone 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 Wizard has its shortcomings, it also has its strengths. If you’re not running Windows Vista 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 updated drivers for a non-Internet connected PC, Driver Wizard is a reliable, fast way to take charge of an otherwise tedious task.

Download Driver Wizard!

Also see our full list of driver download tools and our featured Free Driver scan tool here.

Related articles

Compare 6 device driver download programs
How do I Update all my Computer Device Drivers?
USB Drivers: How to Update
I need help updating HP Drivers?
What is the Microsoft Device Manager?
How to Update Drivers for your Bluetooth Device
Help, I need to Update Microsoft Device Drivers?
How do I Update Acer Device Drivers?
How do I Update my CD-ROM Drivers?
Will my Computer Devices work on Windows Vista?
Which drivers update tool has the biggest driver database

You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.