Just like you update your software to get the latest features and bug fixes, system drivers should also be updated to keep up with ever-evolving hardware. These driver updates optimize how your operating system communicates with various hardware components.
But how would you assure authentic driver updates from malicious ones? Yes, Windows drivers mostly get updates automatically, all you need is a stable internet connection. But what about custom GPU and graphic cards?
In this Avast Driver Updater review, we will talk about the various features of Avast’s own driver updater. Let’s get started.
Avast Driver Updater Review
What is Avast Driver Updater?
Avast Driver Updater is a tool for Windows machines. It scans your device for outdated drivers and updates them to the latest version.
It has an active repository of over 8 million Windows drivers. Such a huge database ensures no matter how diverse or outdated your hardware drivers are, Avast Driver Updater has your back.
The updater scans hardware devices that require driver support to communicate with your Windows operating system.
The Avast Driver Updater can find the latest driver so that your digital peripherals work like a charm. It can track down the recent drivers for graphics cards, sound drivers, network or video adapters, printers, scanners, or digital cameras.
It also lets you restore drivers to their previous version in case the latest driver update is creating issues with your system. It is a standalone software package and you need not install Avast Free Antivirus or the Avast Premium Security to use it.
Avast Driver Updater Walkthrough
To better understand the usability of the Avast updator, let me walk you through its installation and usage.
- Visit their website to download the Avast Driver Updater trial which you can use for free for 15 days. The executable is roughly 1MB and you have to run it as an administrator to install it on your machine.
- Click on “Install Now” to install the application on your system. Let’s find out how to update drivers using Avast outdated software upgrades.
By default, the Avast Driver updater scans your Windows system every 7 days for outdated drivers. But you can trigger a scan in real-time by launching the application and clicking on Scan Again.
- Wait for the updater to finish scanning your Windows system and it will give you a list of outdated drivers.
- Now, you can opt to update all drivers or only select specific ones that you want to update.
- After a few minutes once the update is complete, click on “Done” to close the updater.
- In case you want to ignore a driver from being upgraded from any subsequent scans in the future, select the driver, and click on the three dots.
- You will get options to either skip update or ignore the driver. Click on “Ignore Driver” and that driver will not be considered for future updates.
- On clicking “Skip Update” the driver update will be skipped but driver updates will be applicable on future scans.
That’s not all, you can even restore drivers and switch over to the previous version. To do so:
- Select the driver that you want to roll back. From the bottom right corner click on Driver versions.
- Now, you will be able to see the previous versions of the driver that were updated. Click Restore on the driver version that you want to roll back to. It’s that simple.
After any driver update, make sure you restart your system by clicking on “Restart”. The driver updates will be in place once your system reboots.
Note: Make sure that you do not turn off your PC or do a force restart while the drivers are updating.
Apart from updating outdated drivers, you can also configure the Avast Driver Updater according to your needs. To do so:
- Click on the “Menu” icon from the launch screen and click on “Settings”.
- Here, you can set your preferred language, notification, and privacy settings. You can also specify the driver backup folder where all the driver instances will be stored.
Avast Driver Updater Pricing
You can use it for free during the 15-day Avast Driver Updater trial, post which you have to pay $39.99 per year for a single PC usage.
Is Avast Driver Updater worth it?
Drivers are software packages that run in the background to promote proper syncing between your operating system and different hardware components. The driver updater makes updating drivers easy.
With updated drivers, you reduce the chance of your system crashing when new hardware components are added to your Windows PC. They also significantly improve your device’s performance, web browsing speed and also promotes better graphic rendering.
How safe is Avast Driver Updater?
It is absolutely safe to use and update your device drivers using the Avast Driver Updater. The application downloads the latest drivers from authentic sources, so there are no chances of any malicious content trickling into your system.
On top of that, before every driver update, existing drivers are backed up on your local system and a restore point is created. That way you can restore and roll back to a previous driver version any time you desire.
So, if you are wondering is Avast safe to use as a tool to update drivers, it is.
Conclusion
So, Is Avast Driver updater safe? Well, this is what we have found out so far
- The Avast Driver Updater is a neat software package that makes driver updates easy and secure. These driver updates are especially helpful for updating GPU and graphic card drivers.
- You can choose whether to update the drivers right away, ignore them or completely skip any future upgrades.
- It also backs up and creates a restore point for outdated drivers on your local machine so that you can restore and revert back the driver version any time you desire.
- You can use the driver updater freely for 15 days, post which you have to opt for a yearly subscription that will cost you roughly $40 per year.
- This tool’s scope is limited to Windows systems only running Windows 7 or higher. And $40 per year for a single PC seems pretty steep. Especially when all it does is download free drivers from manufacturers’ websites.
- Unless you keep modifying your PC’s hardware often and are unaware of updating drivers from the manufacturer’s site, you can steer away from it.
Also Read
- Avast Driver Updater Review: Is It Any Good?
- pcTattletale Review (2022): The Best Monitoring Software?
- Is Avast Safe To Use? Can You Trust Them With Your Data?
FAQs
Q. Can I use Avast Driver Updater on two computers?
Every yearly subscription of Avast Driver Updater is restricted to single-PC usage. So you need a separate subscription if you want to use the driver updater on multiple Windows systems.
Q. Should I use Avast Cleanup?
Avast Cleanup is a standalone PC tuneup application that helps you safely remove junk files and improve your PC’s performance. The application is available for Windows, Mac, and Android systems.Â
Q. Why is Avast blocking iTunes?
As a rule of thumb, Avast and other antiviruses block malicious websites that have been flagged in their databases. These are websites that are potentially harmful to your system. However, iTunes is definitely among them.
The only plausible reason for blocking iTunes by Avast is due to other antiviruses that are installed on your system which might be interfering with Avast’s malware detection.
Make sure you don’t have other third-party antiviruses installed. Or you can update Avast, restart your machine and try again.
Q. Does Avast steal data?
There are no instances of eavesdropping or security concerns associated with Avast Driver updater, Trojan on the other hand is. So make sure you do a complete scan of your system for malicious programs to keep your data private & secure.
