$30 Driver Genius 11: $19

[Curt]

on offer by Avanquest for a brief period of time:

http://www.avanquest...ofessional-11-143514

Automatic Driver Detection
With thousands of drivers in the database (for mice, keyboards, scanners, motherboards and more,) Driver Genius Pro 11 automatically identifies the drivers requiring updates and provides you with the most suitable choices to enhance your system’s performance. Get automatic “updated driver” notifications and install in just one click.

Removal of Old and Obsolete Drivers
Automatically removes out-of-date drivers from the Download Manager and hides driver notifications for devices you no longer use.

Backup and Restoration of Your PC’s Drivers
Driver Genius Pro 11 deletes and backs up installed device drivers for your computer, giving you peace of mind.

Regularly Scheduled Updates
Use the Driver Scan Scheduler to set a convenient time to update your PC, ensuring that your drivers are always up-to-date.

Scan Update History
Driver Genius Pro 11 will save all the driver updates in a log file for reference. Now includes an IMPROVED “Scan Planning” feature!

System Diagnosis
Use the “Diagnose Your System” tool to identify problems, quickly detect the component which isn’t functioning properly and find an effective solution.

60,000+ Drivers Supported!

http://www.avanquest...ofessional-11-143514

[Curt]

-but the competitor is all free "today":
http://www.giveawayo...driver-magician-368/

[Steven Avery]

Hi,

My recommendation :

Double Driver freeware for saving your drivers (can be helpful on an OS reinstall, especially the Ethernet driver and the screen driver.)  Of course, if you have a good early image install, this is less likely to be needed, but it is simple enough to save your files to an external disk (best) and/or a cloud place.

Double Driver
http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm

Many companies are problematic, or have little tricks on the back-end.

Deceitful trick by Driver Magician developer. - March 7, 2009
http://dottech.org/gotdreviews/5034

The Driver Genius product from Avanquest is simply not worth the money, and installing new drivers over working ones is always questionable.  My view .. maybe worth $5 or $10 or so to some as a paid program.  At least it probably does not have tricks, hopefully.  

Maybe as an FYI you might use some program to see how outdated such-and-such is.  Nothing automatic, always try to download from the manufacturer if you think it might actually make a difference, but don't rush to replace any functioning driver.

If someone has a recommended totally freeware, no-toolbar driver product that simply makes recommendations that you could think about installing from the manufacturers website, I would think about that for fun.  Much like I run those programs that tell me about all the updates to my installed programs.

Steven