How to Use Driver Easy | Is Driver Easy Safe to Use

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 19, 2024

If your computer is having issues like failing to boot up or a malfunctioning graphics card, some troubleshooting guides might recommend that you update your drivers. That's because drivers act as a bridge between your hardware and the operating system – without them, your PC won't take your commands too well. When it comes to updating your drivers, Driver Easy can lend you a hand. However, it also has its drawbacks, such as the question of whether it's safe or not.

Thus, in this article, we will explain what Driver Easy is and how to use it. Considering its pros and cons, you can judge whether the software is safe to use.

Main content:

What is Driver Easy?
How to Use Driver Easy for Free
How to Manually Install Drivers in Windows 10/7
Is Driver Easy Safe or Necessary to Use?
Bonus Tip: Clone Your Partition to Prevent Data Loss

Driver Easy is a computer software primarily designed to help users easily manage and update their computer drivers. The software automatically detects outdated or missing drivers on the system and provides a user-friendly interface for downloading and installing the latest driver versions. This ensures optimal system performance and the proper functioning of hardware devices. Driver Easy also features a backup and restore function, allowing users to revert to previous driver versions when needed.

As a driver update tool, Driver Easy can automatically identify the drivers that need updating with just a click. The utility supports downloading drivers directly from within the software, eliminating the need to search and download from manufacturers' websites.

If you're using the free version of Driver Easy, you can skip to the next section for an in-depth tutorial.

How to Use Driver Easy for Free

If you're using the free version of Driver Easy, Driver Easy will download the updates for you, but you'll need to install them manually. Here's how:

Step 1: Open Driver Easy. Click the Scan Now button.

Step 2: Wait until the scanning process is completed.

Step 3: In the Update tab, Driver Easy will display the drivers that need to be updated. You can choose which ones to update as you wish.

(This image depicts the second step of Driver Easy.)

4. Click “Create Manually,” and wait for the driver to download.

Create a restore point manually

5. Click the downward arrow next to “Update,” and select “Open file location.”

If the file has the ".exe" extension, double-click to open it. Otherwise, press "Ctrl + C" to copy the address in the address bar.

Step 7. Press "Windows + R" to open the "Run" window. Type in "devmgmt.msc" and press ↵ Enter to open Device Manager. (Alternatively, press "Windows + X" and click "Device Manager" from the menu.)

Step 8. Expand the category, then select the device you want to update.

Step 9: Right-click on it and select “Update Driver.”

Update audio driver

Step 10: In the “Update Driver” window, click on “Browse my computer for driver software.”

Step 11. In the "Browse for driver software in location" section, paste the address that you copied in Step 5. Then wait for the installation to finish.

If the driver installed successfully, you'll see a message that says Windows has successfully updated your driver.

How to Manually Install a Driver in Windows 10/7

Step 1: Download the driver from the manufacturer's website.

• Identify the make and model of a specific piece of hardware. (Search for “system information,” and look under the Details tab, for example, for a sound device, as shown.)

2. Go to the manufacturer's support website and download the driver. The support page should have information on how to download the driver. If it's not there, call their website's customer service. 3. Save the .inf file to your computer and extract it. Save it to your desktop or somewhere else you'll easily find it.

Step 2. Update the driver through Device Manager

1. Press "Windows Key + X" to open Device Manager. 2. Expand the category of the device you want to update. 3. Right-click on the device, then select "Update Driver" and choose "Browse my computer for driver software." 4. Select the location of the device driver. 5. Click "Open" then "Next."

Is Driver Easy safe or necessary to use?

"A friend of mine asked me to try it, and it told me I had 14 drivers that were out of date and that I should update them. But I'm not sure if it's safe or necessary." Do you have the same question as this user?

If you expect the free software to automatically install drivers for you, you might be disappointed, as this is a paid feature. Also, while online installation is a strong point of the product, you need an Internet connection for the driver installation process. Some users on Reddit complained about data loss or freezing computers.

But is Driver Easy useless? Of course not.

If you're not sure which driver is out of date, this is an easy way to find out, and it saves time compared to the manual method above – you don't have to mess around identifying your hardware, you can get straight to updating the driver.

### Tip: Clone partitions to avoid data loss

"I downloaded Driver Easy, and then I lost sound on my HP laptop and couldn't get it back..." Considering data loss can happen sometimes, we suggest you make a partition copy with a partition manager tool before using Driver Easy. You can copy the source disk to the target disk sector by sector to avoid data loss.

Step 1: Select the source disk.

Click “Clone” from the left-hand menu. Choose “Clone system disk” or “Clone data disk,” then click “Next.” Select the source disk, then click “Next.”

Step 2: Select the target disk.

• Select the HDD/SSD you want as the target disk, and then click "Next" to continue.
• Read the warning message and confirm by clicking the "Yes" button.

When prompted that the utility will erase all data from the target disk, click “Continue” (make sure to back up any important data on your target disk ahead of time).

Here you can choose to “Automatically adjust disk size,” “Clone source disk size,” or “Edit disk layout.” (Choose the last option if you want to leave more room for the C drive.)

Step 4: Click Start to begin cloning the disk.