Driver Booster PRO Review - Keep Your Device Drivers and Game Components Updated

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Automatic scan mode
  • (7 more, see all...)

Driver Booster 3 PRO is a software application developed by IObit that promises to scan and identify outdated, missing, and faulty drivers. Its capabilities are not limited only to detection. They go beyond that and help you download and update outdated drivers with just one click. 

Buggy drivers are responsible for lots of things that may affect the overall performance and stability of your computer, and they may vary from crashes, freezes, reboots, sleep and hibernation issues up to Blue Screen of Death errors.

Upgrading to another operating system does not necessarily mean that all your drivers are automatically updated as well. You need to manually check the driver version on the manufacturers’ websites in order to verify if you are running the latest one. Keeping track of each small update added to a driver may be a tedious, tiresome, and tiring job. Appealing to third-party apps like Driver Booster 3 PRO seems to be right choice for handling automatic updates without further headaches.

PRO vs. free version

You can purchase a license for $22.95/€20.37. The tool can be installed on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.

You can also download the free version of the program. In our last review, we have tested the free version of Driver Booster and come to the conclusion that it does a great job at keeping your drivers up to date effortlessly.

However, there are some features in the PRO version which are not implemented in the free edition. Driver Booster PRO comes with support for automatic driver download and installation mode when system is idle, unlimited driver update speed, priority for updating older and rarer drivers, better system performance by reducing system freezes and crashes, automatic backup of all drivers for safe restoring options, priority to update components for better gaming sessions, automatic updates to the latest version, as well as 24/7 technical support on demand.

Improvements added in Driver Booster 3 PRO

The new edition of Driver Booster PRO provides support for a brand-new enhanced online database that now includes more than 200,000 drivers, allowing you to start digging even for old and rare audio, network, graphics, and other types of drivers, expanded game components database to include VC Runtime 2008, VC Runtime 2010, and VC Runtime 2012, and full support for Windows 10.

Furthermore, it lets you make of use of an automatic driver download feature at system idle time in order to save update time, search function for quickly identifying drivers, automatic backup mode so you can restore unwanted driver updates anytime, and a few small tweaks applied to the user interface. Plus, the application is able to detect missing and faulty drivers to fix related problems, and clean up unplugged devices no longer used.

Easy-to-decode layout

Driver Booster PRO impresses with a clean and intuitive GUI. The tool shows details about the driver status (outdated or up-to-date), lets you start a new scan task with ease, and view the status of the device drivers and game components.

An overview of your driver status is displayed when you open Driver Booster PRO
An overview of your driver status is displayed when you open Driver Booster PRO

The utility supports a wide range or device drivers, such as graphics, audio, network, chipset, and printer. It is able to scan various game components, like PhysX, DirectX, VC runtime, Unity Web Player, Adobe Flash Player, Java SE Runtime Environment, and OpenAL.

An online help manual is available in case you need extra assistance with the configuration settings. Changing the looks of the GUI can be done with the aid of three skins, namely Black, White, and Interstellar. Plus, you can alter the transparency of the GUI, adjust the font size, and import a picture (e.g. JPG, BMP, GIF) from your personal collection to set it in the background.

Interpreting the scan results

Driver Booster PRO creates a list with outdated drivers and another one with up-to-date drivers. Scan results may vary depending on your PC condition. The tool reveals information about outdated drivers (marked as extremely old, very old, and old), missing drivers, and faulty drivers.

You can update each driver individually or select the ones that you want to process with a single click. The updating process is usually resumed to three steps which are performed automatically, namely create a restore point, download drivers (you may also stop the task and resume it next time), and install drivers. A reboot may be needed in order to apply the updates correctly.

What’s more, you are allowed to get detailed information about each driver (version, date, and publisher for both old and new drivers), roll back the changes made to the current driver, ignore items from the scan process, as well as export the list with device drivers to plain text file format.

Uninstall drivers or update them individually
Uninstall drivers or update them individually

Installing driver updates may lead to unexpected system errors and crashes, and this is why it’s a good idea to back up your drivers so you can easily restore a driver to an older version. Restore points can also be created so you can undo all changes with ease.

We have tested the utility on Windows 10 and noticed that scan and update tasks are executed very quickly. During a scan process CPU and memory usage is low, but while updating drivers the overall performance of the computer may be affected.

General configuration settings

You can run Driver Booster PRO at Windows startup, minimize the utility to system tray when it’s closed, automatically enable the scan mode upon launching the program, run scheduled tasks daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly, scan updates for game components, and automatically scan newly connected devices. Plus, you can make the app display only drivers that pass WHQL tests (they belong to Microsoft’s testing process).

The tool lets you specify the download folder where all drivers are kept, pick the backup directory, automatically create a restore point before a driver is installed, automatically delete installed driver packages, automatically back up a driver before it is installed, and automatically download drivers while your PC is idle to reduce driver update time.

A Silent Installation mode can be employed for helping you carry out the updating process in the background without bothering you with dialog boxes and other popup messages. You may also create a list with ignored devices that won’t be scanned for updates and set up network parameters. 


The Good

Driver Booster PRO provides a highly intuitive method for keeping your drivers in excellent shape. Driver backup sessions and system restore points are implemented for helping you roll back changes. The one-click update of all drivers at the same time is one of the program’s strongest advantages.

The app also offers support for a large database of drivers and game components, lets you perform searches throughout the list with detected items, gets extra details about each driver, and runs scheduled scans. 

The Bad

Although we have not come across issues on Windows 10 while downloading and installing updates, you may happen to bump into system errors. This usually happens due to wrong driver downloads or unsuccessful installation processes. 

The Truth

In conclusion, Driver Booster PRO makes it really easy for you to fix and update a wide range of drivers without messing up your day with comprehensive settings. Both rookies and professionals can enhance game experience and boost PC performance with minimal effort. 

user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
NEXT REVIEW: CCleaner Cloud

Driver Booster 3 PRO (18 Images)

Update all drivers and game components with a single clickGet a list with all up-to-date drivers and game componentsPerform searches for quickly identifying a driver in the listCreate driver backups so you can roll back changesChange the looks of the GUI using different skins
+13more