On my drivers booster thread you've got to look at post #1 for install instructions. The simple truth is it works for some and not for others, all the evidence is out there, and from my own personal experience as well. I  Of course bad experiences are going to carry a lot more weight. Let the debate continue but really in order to assess it, you need to install and test it yourself, rather than judge from a distance. BTW I don't think people alledge anything, they just give their own heart felt opinions and experiences, it's up to you if you decide that the advise is good or bad and that is fine.

CakeAlexS
On my drivers booster thread you've got to look at post #1 for install instructions. The simple truth is it works for some and not for others, all the evidence is out there, and from my own personal experience as well. I  Of course bad experiences are going to carry a lot more weight. Let the debate continue but really in order to assess it, you need to install and test it yourself, rather than judge from a distance. BTW I don't think people alledge anything, they just give their own heart felt opinions and experiences, it's up to you if you decide that the advise is good or bad and that is fine.

Alex, I discovered Driver Boost on your thread and followed your instruction to a T.  I ended up where I did by doing so.  And, on another note, I have no quibble with dubdisciple.  It's just when a statement is presented without evidence or identifying it as opinion, then some will take it as fact, which may be misleading.  Credibility is another issue altogether, and not one that I'm into, at the moment.

Lynn
You allege that most people are using "something like this as a shortcut", but I wonder about that statement.  Do you have any statistics to back that up?  As you point out, resist offers to "upgrade" and disable any "automatic" features.  Yet, that is the raison d'etre of these programs.  If one has to be SO extremely careful when using a program like this, then it's likely BOGUS to begin with.  And btw, I doubt that "wildly clicking without reading" is the heart of this problem, what reading material are you referring to?  The instructions for this program are fairly straight-forward.

 
Sorry if you took my statements as an implication you were somehow doing this wrong.  This product is a shortcut. I don't say that as a bad thing. It's a product designed to save a person the time of going to every website to find every updated driver. I don't think that requires proof anymore than baking a cake using a box is a shortcut to making everything from scratch.  It seems pretty self evident.  I would not disagree that we should not have to be so careful, but I apply the same standard when applying updates from trusted sources.  Recently one of MS' updates caused black lines to appear in video.  It was a known issue that has since been fixed. At no point did I say that EVERYONE who ran into trouble did so because of "wildly clicking" or that you did so.  I just stated the fact that such actions could lead to trouble.  Would you dispute that? 

and for the record, I actually agree with you that programs like this should give us pause if you have to be that careful.  They are truly use at your own risk.  i have had programs with great reputations cause me issues. 
 

dubdisciple

Lynn
You allege that most people are using "something like this as a shortcut", but I wonder about that statement.  Do you have any statistics to back that up?  As you point out, resist offers to "upgrade" and disable any "automatic" features.  Yet, that is the raison d'etre of these programs.  If one has to be SO extremely careful when using a program like this, then it's likely BOGUS to begin with.  And btw, I doubt that "wildly clicking without reading" is the heart of this problem, what reading material are you referring to?  The instructions for this program are fairly straight-forward.

 
Sorry if you took my statements as an implication you were somehow doing this wrong.  This product is a shortcut. I don't say that as a bad thing. It's a product designed to save a person the time of going to every website to find every updated driver. I don't think that requires proof anymore than baking a cake using a box is a shortcut to making everything from scratch.  It seems pretty self evident.  I would not disagree that we should not have to be so careful, but I apply the same standard when applying updates from trusted sources.  Recently one of MS' updates caused black lines to appear in video.  It was a known issue that has since been fixed. At no point did I say that EVERYONE who ran into trouble did so because of "wildly clicking" or that you did so.  I just stated the fact that such actions could lead to trouble.  Would you dispute that? 

I don't dispute you on that matter.  I have no problem with your post at all.  It was mainly a rhetorical question on my part.  In fact, you bring up a good point about upgrades from trusted sources.  I, too, did an upgrade from MS that messed up my system until they fixed it a couple of days later.  That made me  question why I would fix something that was working perfectly before.  Thanks for reminding me of that.

>  It's just when a statement is presented without evidence or identifying it as opinion, then some will take it as fact, which may be misleading.
 
Everything is subjective. If I suggest to somebody that they install X3D then they may disagree and decide for themselves that X3C is better for instance, and who am I to tell them that they are right or wrong. I can only give opinion. Every technical article ever made is simply advice, it's up to the user to decide what they want to do, I'm not in the business of putting out disclaimers over everything but maybe I should put it in my footer! :) So I shall take this advice on board.

Alex, it's good to know that you don't think like a lawyer.

CakeAlexS
>  It's just when a statement is presented without evidence or identifying it as opinion, then some will take it as fact, which may be misleading.
 
Everything is subjective. 

Alex, it's good to know that you don't think like a lawyer.

Considering how careful you have to be with this software, and how knowledgeable about the workings of your computer, I would say that defeats the point of it to begin with.
 
There is no way that any third party utility is better at finding "outdated" drivers than you are if you take five or ten minutes. There really aren't that many important drivers on your computer.
 
Since we like to speak in facts, the fact here is that DriverBoost is statistically a lot better at screwing up your system than it is at fixing your system - updating a random driver to a slightly newer version doesn't always make things a whole lot better, but installing a wrong one definitely makes things a lot worse.
 
EDIT:
So, no, I don't think it is a good idea to "install it and see for yourself" at all.

> So, no, I don't think it is a good idea to "install it and see for yourself" at all.
 
I just want to clarify in case this quote from somewhere gets attached to what I said which was "Let the debate continue but really in order to assess it, you need to install and test it yourself, rather than judge from a distance."
 
Of course that is the only actual way you are going to be able assess software, and if you don't wish to assess the software and rely on opinion then that's perfectly fine and valid. I am unaware of any stats on the effectiveness of driver boost but as I said earlier obviously the bad stories will outweigh the good, all software suffers from it as nothing is perfect.
 
Oh and what you say I agree with mostly.

That seems fair, as long as you specify that people could do this for testing purposes (which can really screw up their system) and not as a general recommendation.