Identify Devices, Download or Update Drivers With DriverZone

Losing your driver discs can be a frustrating, if you are not sure which hardware your computer came with. This is particularly a problem with laptops, since these devices come preloaded with the operating system and manufacturers are not very forthcoming on the exact specification of their models.

Thankfully, every piece of hardware on a computer has a unique identification number. If you can obtain the number, you can easily locate and download the drivers from the manufacturer’s website or the web in general. Previously, I showed you how to locate hardware ID for unknown devices manually without using any software, and how to identify the device manufacturer from the hardware ID.

I also wrote about software such as Driver Magician that automatically identified and updated device drivers. But Driver Magician has gone paid. Alternatives such as free version of Driver Max has restrictions on use. But DriverZone is totally free.

This driver scanner software is just over 600 kilobytes in size and is portable. Simply double click on the executable file to launch the scanner and wait as it scans and identifies your devices. The results of the scan is then opened in your web browser. You need to be connected to the Internet to see the results. If the computer doesn’t have an active Internet connection, you can save the results, take the saved copy to a computer that is connected to the Internet and view the results there.

The results page will list all devices connected to your machine. A green icon indicates that the driver for that device is up-to-date. A red icon indicates that a more recent version of the driver than the one installed on your machine is available. A click on the blue icon next to the red icon takes you to a page from where you can download the updated driver.

DriverZone is also available as a browser plugin compatible with 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. The plugin allows your web browser to do the scan.

Furthermore, DriverZone.com has a huge database of drivers neatly organized by device type as well as by manufacturer name that you can browse and download drivers for yourself. There is also a device identifying utility which can identify drivers from the hardware ID.

DriverZone is compatible with 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows 7, Server 2008, Vista, XP and Server 2003. It also runs on Windows ME, 2000, 98, 95 and NT4.

Related:

• Device Remover – The advanced device manager
• Backup and restore installed drivers with Double Driver