Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

[reaper57]

I recently found out about a program called IObit Driver Booster 2. Have any of you guys ever used it and what are your opinions about it? Is it safe and has anyone ever had any problems with it? Anything special I should know about it?

[kc8adu]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

crapware.
the last 2 iobit apps i encountered were very persistent and annoying.
reinforced my reason not to ever try their stuff.
if i invoke the uninstaller it was demanding a survey before it would uninstall!
would not uninstall without internet!had to dig the crap out manually.

[JJR]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

^^^ This

Whenever I see IoBit software on a customers machine I remove it. It's junkware!

[ddscentral]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

+1

Most of these driver scanners, registry cleaners, pc boosters, etc. are pure crapware.
Especially Iobit, as their junk is often bundled with various freeware installers.
Such crapware is "uninstall on sight" for me.

[shovenose]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

IObit's only decent program is Start Menu 8, and even on that you must be very careful to uncheck everything. Otherwise, their products are totally adware.

[ratdude747]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

I think I've seen dog turds more useful than their software. Nuke it.

[goontron]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

please dont mention IOBit again, PLEASE! every system i have cleaned up has had IOCrap on it along with other crapware and malware. The practice of bundling spyware should be illegal!

[stj]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

The practice of bundling spyware should be illegal!

that would mean selling computers without windows / OSX on them.

[goontron]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

^ well sell them with "no OS" they do that in other countries (puerto rico is one IIRC).
Wait, no. most people don't want to learn HOW to maintain a computer!

[R_J]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

Those programs are unnecessary, Just go to the maker of the product IE (nvidia, geforce, asus etc.) and see if there is a new driver available (or an old one if needed)
Also some sites offering drivers, especially for older hardware can be risky.

[reaper57]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

Thanks for the advice guys! I know that it's best to just download the drivers manually, but having a program like that is useful in some "though" cases. The last driver update program I've used was driver navigator, and it actually worked pretty well. But then I had some license problems with it, hehe, and I stopped using it about two years ago. I haven't really had big problems finding drivers, but some guy mentioned it on another forum and I thought it might be good.
Again, thank you for your opinions!

[JJR]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

If you install drivers a lot I would recommend Snappy Driver Installer http://snappy-driver-installer.sourc...t/en/index.php

I use this everyday, when I reinstall windows, when I clean out malware, when I do a tune up etc.

The full download is 8gb, I put it on an external HDD and it will install/update 99.999% of drivers in a few minutes.

Along with imagex & offline updates this is one of my fave tools.

[shovenose]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

You can also use DriverEasy - the free version makes for a slow download since they limit it to dial up speeds unless you pay for the Pro version, but it's not a virus (though it does look like one) and it is an easy way to identify what model a bit of hardware is without looking at Driver IDs or pulling the side panel.

[c_hegge]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

I always have been and always will be of the opinion that no driver updater, registry optimiser or any other "performance boost" tool should ever, under any circumstances be used or installed on any computer. I want nothing more than to see IOBit, UniBlue and other similar companies either get their act together and make something useful or go bankrupt and disappear off the face of the earth.

[kaboom]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

I always have been and always will be of the opinion that no driver updater, registry optimiser or any other "performance boost" tool should ever, under any circumstances be used or installed on any computer. I want nothing more than to see IOBit, UniBlue and other similar companies either get their act together and make something useful or go bankrupt and disappear off the face of the earth.

For their purposes, it's perfectly useful.
They should only be taken care of by the "goodfellas" at the "casino."
"Is this your pen?" "Go get yah shinebox!"

FWIW, the correct way to ID unknown hardware, other than looking up the part numbers, is to simply look at/up the ID strings device manager. That's what the crapware does, but not before using your desktop as whitespace, or, more likely, not at all...

It used to be "pay-per-click" scamming. Now, there are incentive$ to pu$h this onto as many as possible- the more the distributers "promote" and "disguise" it (those stupid DOWNLOAD NOW buttons), the more the "mother ship" pays that particular "download site."

Looking at you C(9)NET.

[reaper57]

Re: Driver booster 2 Opinion needed

Thank you for the advice again. I like JJR's way of installing drivers, but I decided to give driver booster a try, on a VM at first of course. Surprisingly it works pretty well. It doesn't set itself up to start with windows, there was only one optional install and it was unchecked by default and you don't have to go into the advanced install settings to check it/uncheck it. It doesn't even leave too much stuff in the registry after you uninstall it. I have yet to test it on multiple computers to determine its driver finding capabilities, but it's definitely not crapware as you and I expected. I guess iObit might have stepped up their game, either that or they are just using it to lure people in so that they can turn it into complete crapware with a future update.