Double Driver Editor's Review

When you buy a new PC, you'll get almost always a CD or DVD containing the device drivers for all the hardware that’s inside your new computer. The disk becomes very handy when you install or reinstall your Windows from scratch. However, there are at least three drawbacks using this disk. First of all, you'll have to remember where you put that disk months ago; second, you'll always install those outdated device drivers found on the disk and third, you might not have Internet connection to search for the drivers in case you lost the original disk.

An easy solution to all these annoying drawbacks is this great free utility, Double Driver. Basically this application will scan your operating system and create a listing of all the installed device drivers. Once completed, you'll practically backup all those device drivers currently installed on your system to the location that you select (external hard drive, USB flash drive, other partition, etc.) and when you need so, you can restore all those backed-up drivers with just a few clicks.

To backup your drivers, just click on the ‘Backup’ button found in the top menu and then at the bottom, hit 'Scan Current System'. After a short time, you'll see a long list of the device drivers being listed down (with details such as version, provider, class and so on). By default, only the drivers that are non-Microsoft will be selected (the non-Microsoft drivers you need to backup because they are not integrated in the OS) but you can choose which once to backup manually as well. After you select the specific drivers that you want to backup, just click on ‘Backup Now’ button and it will prompt you for the destination folder where you want to backup your drivers.

To restore your drivers, click 'Restore' in the top menu, then click on 'Locate Backup' at the bottom, select the location of the backup directory and after you click 'Ok', the device drivers found in the backup location will be listed down. After that, just click 'Restore Now' and go through the easy wizard to install those drivers.

Pluses:Double Driver is portable so you can run it from your USB flash drive without installation, however, under Windows Vista and 7, you'll have to run it as administrator. (to do so, right click on the executable and then hit 'Run as administrator');

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: An excellent tool that will make Windows installation as easy as a walk in the park. I like it very much and yes, you can trust me when I say, 'you'll be happy to have this utility when it comes to Windows re-installation'.

4.1.0