Backing up device drivers is useful if you do not have at hand the disks that were included with the PC equipment or you do not have the opportunity to download latest versions drivers from the websites of equipment manufacturers, or maybe the system has such old equipment that drivers for which are already quite difficult to find. However, there is a more compelling reason for creating backup copy drivers - the case when the system has already been reinstalled, and the driver for network card s is missing for some reason. In this case, you can either look for another computer with Internet access (if this computer is nearby) or use a pre-prepared external network card and also a driver downloaded in advance for it. However, it is much more practical to make a backup copy of the drivers before reinstalling the system; for this you can use the program DriverMax. You can download the program from the official website. It is worth noting that DriverMax provides the opportunity not only to create backup copies of drivers, but also to use other useful services, but for this you need to create your own account.
Program installation:
Installing the program is quite simple. At the beginning you will be greeted by the program installation wizard, click “Next”, then you must accept the terms license agreement, if you agree with them, click “I accept the agreement”, then select the folder to install the program, click “Next”, select the folder to store the shortcuts, click “Next” again, after which you can create an icon on the desktop ( create a desktop icon) and in the panel quick launch(create a Quick Launch icon). Check the appropriate boxes and click “Next”, and then click “Install”. Once the installation is complete, a window will appear notifying you that DriverMax will identify installed device drivers. This procedure will be performed once and will take from 3 to 5 minutes (in reality, when testing on different PCs, it took no more than 1.5 minutes) (Fig. 1).
Click OK. After this, the driver identification process will begin. Then DriverMax will offer to launch the program now (Launch DriverMax) and visit the program website (open the web page). After that, click "Finish". This completes the installation process.
2. Working with the program:
After installation, the main program window will appear (Fig. 2).
In this case, to create a backup copy of the drivers, I will use the “Backup drivers” option, and to subsequently restore the drivers, I will use the “Restore drivers from backup” option. In addition to these options DriverMax allows you to view information about popular PC components, identify the equipment you have and get detailed information about installed devices, however, to use some of these options you will have to create a special account.
So, in order to start creating a backup copy of the drivers in the “Driver” category backup and restore", select "Backup drivers". A window will appear (Fig. 3).
Here is a description of the process of copying drivers. Click Next. Wait a few seconds, after which the program will detect your installed drivers (Fig. 4).
So everything is ready for backup. Select the drivers you need to copy (usually it is not necessary to select all the devices shown, since Windows will detect and install drivers for most of them during installation, I recommend making copies of the video, sound, network card drivers, as well as peripheral devices(printers, scanners, etc.)). In order to make copies of drivers for all devices, click “Select All”; to select individual devices, simply check them. Near each driver there is a “Details” button, by clicking on which you will see more detailed information. After selecting the drivers to copy, click “Next”. A window will appear (Fig. 5).
Here you can choose where to save the copied drivers, placing them either in a separate folder or in ZIP file. In this case, I chose option 1. After that, click "Next". The process of creating a backup copy of the selected drivers will begin, after which a window will appear (Fig. 6).
You can view the copied drivers in the folder (Open extraction folder) or just look at the list of copied drivers (View log). This completes the process of creating a driver backup. It is better to save the driver folder to removable media. To do this, click on the magnifying glass and select any of the media (for example, a flash drive or removable HDD). You will need to restore drivers after reinstallation operating system or in case of uninstallation of any driver.
After reinstalling the system, check which drivers you need to install. You can read about how to do this in the article. If there are devices in the system for which drivers are not installed, you can either download new versions of drivers on the Internet, install them from any media, or restore them using DriverMax. The advantage of recovery with DriverMax is that in a couple of mouse clicks you can install everything missing drivers, which were backed up.
To restore drivers using DriverMax, again already on new system install the program as described above and select “Restore drivers from backup”. After this, you will again see a window about what you have to do, click “Next”. Then you need to select the folder from which the drivers will be restored. To select the storage location for the driver folder, click on the magnifying glass icon. Then click "Next". After that DriverMax will determine which driver backups are in this folder and display a list of them. Check the boxes for the drivers that need to be restored and click “Next”. A window will appear with the drivers selected for recovery (Fig. 7).
Click Next. A warning message will appear “You are about to install all the displayed drivers. Continue?" (You are about to install all the drivers shown). Click Yes. After this, the driver installation process will begin. A window will appear (Fig. 8).
This process may take considerable time, depending on the number of drivers being installed. Wait for the process to complete. After this, the message “You should restart your computer after each driver installation. Proceeded with reboot now? (You must restart your computer after each driver reinstallation. Restart your computer?). Click "Yes".
After this, the program will once again display information about installed drivers for the selected devices, and then the computer will restart. After the reboot, make sure that the drivers you selected were installed successfully. It is also worth noting that when testing the program DriverMax There were cases when not all selected drivers were restored (however, in most cases DriverMax correctly restored device drivers). However, the program is updated and with the release of new versions you should count on an even more advanced driver recovery process.
Key Features
- creating a backup copy of all drivers installed on the PC and placing them in a separate folder;
- archiving files with the ability to quickly backup them when the need arises (backup - duplicating and reinstalling saved drivers);
- automatic detection of drivers and their construction into a convenient list;
- displaying detailed information about files (versions, developers, release date, etc.);
- availability of a functional import and installation wizard;
- Regular search for new versions for installed hardware.
Advantages and disadvantages
The software stands out with the following advantages:
- implementation operational installation necessary drivers from one place (the operation takes about 5-6 minutes);
- simple and fairly intuitive interface.
There are also disadvantages, and these are:
- limited action free version(30 days);
- lack of Russian language in the interface menu.
Among similar programs the following can be distinguished:
1. Double Driver – a utility that allows you to view the list of drivers installed on your PC, “pull” them out of the system, save and restore copies.
2. DriverScanner – an application designed to search for outdated components on a computer, as well as update their firmware.
3. SlimDrivers - a utility that checks and updates all driver versions. It creates backups that can be used to restore a previous version.
How to use
To save necessary drivers you need to launch DriverMax and click on the “Backup drivers” button located in the main window:
To install individual components, select the ones you need and click on the “Backup” button, and then “Backup selected drivers”:
Selecting drivers to save
To save all components installed on the system, click on “Backup”, and then “Backup all drivers”. After completing this action, a window will open in front of you with an archive of all saved files:
Saved drivers
DriverMax will greatly facilitate your work on your PC, automate and speed up the process of finding and installing all the necessary drivers.
Everyone has experienced situations when the sound on the computer disappears, or the game simply does not turn on, giving an error related to the video card. These, as well as many other problems, arise due to the lack of driver updates that provide correct work devices.
Updates are not released every day, but still quite often, and in order to keep track of them, you need to be constantly up to date with the news, which is almost impossible. But with the program Driver Max you can forget about it forever.
On the main program window you can see brief information about the system (1), and when you click on Exclamation point A browser window will open, showing detailed information about all components of the computer. Just below is information about drivers (2).
Scanning System
To detect missing or old versions of software, you need to scan the system.
Driver Update
In the free version of the program, you can update the software only one by one, either by checking the box and clicking on the “Download and Install” button (1), or by clicking on the “Update” button (2) next to each driver. Unlike DriverPack Solution, here simultaneous updating of all software is available only in the PRO version.
Compliance and Ignoring
Some software may not be suitable for your system, and for this there is a “Matching devices” button that will check whether the driver matches the device on your PC or not. You can also ignore this or that software, which will help get rid of its appearance during the next scan.
Backup and restore point
Also, during a software update in DriverMax, a failure or any other unforeseen circumstance may occur that can lead to problems in the system. To fix this, the program has the ability to create a system restore point (1) or a driver backup (2).
Recovery
You can restore the system in 4 ways, which was not available in Driver Booster:
— Using a system restore point (1)
— Using backups (2)
- Using rollback to basic version (3)
— Using previously downloaded drivers (4)
Advantages:
- Not a bad set of drivers
- Detailed information about the system and selection of appropriate software
- Four recovery methods
Flaws:
- Slightly reduced features in the free version
Simple and convenient program DriverMax is great tool, which greatly simplifies the life of PC users. DriverMax has one of the richest databases of driver types, and is aimed entirely in this direction. Does not have additional features, as in DriverPack Solution and many other programs, but in it it is not so necessary.
Drivers are necessary so that the computer system can clearly know what a particular device does. Developers constantly have to make changes to software, since both the computer system and devices change. Most important device The computer is a video card, and the performance and speed of conversion of the graphic image depends on how outdated the drivers on your PC are.
DriverMax is a driver update program. On this moment This program has the largest software database, and it is there that you can update the drivers for your video card.
Updating video card drivers using DriverMax
After downloading the program, install it in a standard way and open it. She works for windows versions 7 and above.
Now you need to scan the system for outdated drivers. To do this, click on the “Scan for driver updates now” button (1) or select the “Driver updates” tab (2).
After the scan is completed, a list of drivers will appear. In it you need to find an update for your video adapter (usually the name contains either “AMD” or “Nvidia”). If you do not find the name of your video card in the list, then update the standard graphics adapter, by clicking on the “Upgrade” button. If it is not in the list, then the video card does not require updating.
After this, the program will be able to update the video card drivers on Windows 7 or higher. After that, it will notify you that the update was successfully completed.
DriverMax is an installation program that allows you to create backups necessary files and any direction. With the help of this program, from now on there is no need to collect drivers on disks, everything is now stored in one place, so if necessary, you can quickly reinstall all the drivers.
Drivermax can be downloaded for free. The work of the program comes down to the fact that it receives the information it needs about the currently running computer drivers and shows all the devices that use them, as well as a description for each driver by version, number of files, creation date and presence of a digital signature. The program exports all found or selected drivers into one archive, after which when reinstalling Windows program imports all the drivers back from the archive into the computer system and all devices begin to work as expected.
Key features of DriverMax
Detailed information about existing drivers;
- Generating a detailed report on installed and used drivers;
- All installed drivers(just in case) copied to one folder;
- Creates an archive for further import of drivers onto a PC when reinstalling Windows;
- Imports driver saves in 5 minutes to install them into the system;
- Checks all installed drivers for the possibility of updating to more recent versions.
Pros:
DriverMax program allows the user to automate the search and installation of tools that control devices. Make a backup copy of them, which will be packed into a standard rar archive, and then install everything that was on the computer before reinstalling Windows. It also easily finds software in its own database located on a distant server and provides detailed information about the characteristics of the computer: what processor is installed, how much free space is left on the hard drive. It is shown in the same way as Windows version installed now. Another advantage is multiplatform.
Minuses:
Often, when working with the utility, mice and keyboards with this connection interface are not detected.
Screenshots: 
How to use?
Before starting work you must go through mandatory registration. Interestingly, the program is not friendly with mailboxes search engines Yandex and mail. Registration is completed, you can start working. Before scanning the system, it is advisable to make a backup copy of the controllers. Further, after checking the system, Driver Max will show which controllers should be updated or equipped with new devices. To install them, you must press the corresponding button. To install the driver from a backup copy, go to the appropriate tab. Drivermax is easy to download and install. When installing the program, you need to pay attention to the checkboxes next to items that may be unnecessary for the user. It is necessary to read in detail what the program wants to change so as not to cause inconvenience in the future.
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