Most IT pros will tell you that one way to make sure all of your peripherals and computer accessories are running properly is to keep their drivers up to date. But how do you know how old your existing drivers are? DriverView can help. This lightweight application is designed to do one thing: display the names and basic information about the drivers on your computer.
DriverView's strength is in its simplicity. Instead of wading through properties screens and the device manager, running the risk of changing something you didn't mean to, DriverView gives you one application to open that displays all of the drivers--including Windows default system drivers--that are installed and active on your system.
The app is lightweight and completely free. It works on Windows NT, 2000, and XP, and is a stand-alone program, so you can copy it to a flash drive and take it from computer to computer. Simply run the app, and a window appears displaying the drivers, the driver address, the version number, the date the driver was created, the company that created the driver, and a basic description of the device driver. You can double-click on a driver to get even more information, or export your driver list to a file. Unfortunately, the tool doesn't download updated drivers for you, and doesn't give you a way to find updated drivers from the manufacturer.
Because DriverView only does one thing, it's both an asset and a liability. The tool would be more useful to people comfortable upgrading and reinstalling drivers if it allowed you to manage your drivers, remove them, or install new ones. At the same time, because the tool only displays the drivers installed on your computer, you can trust family and friends who aren't particularly computer savvy to use it to get information you'll need if you're troubleshooting over the phone or remotely.
[ via DownloadSquad ]
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