But is this necessary?
If you’ve ever used a driver cleaner, it was probably quite a few years ago.
You shouldn’t need to run them anymore unless you encounter problems after upgrading drivers.
What is a Driver Cleaner?
Hardware drivers aren’t just self-contained pieces of software.
For example, perhaps you were upgrading your NVIDIA or AMD graphics driver to the latest version.
This could cause problems, as these driver files were never designed to work together.
Conflicting driver files could result in crashes, slow-downs, and other glitches.
In The Past…
In the past, driver cleaners were much more popular utilities.
They then installed the new graphics drivers and rebooted Windows once again.
Today Is Different
Related:Do you gotta Worry About Updating Your Desktop Programs?
We live in a different world today – the process is much more automated.
NVIDIA and AMD’s graphics driversautomatically check for updates.
The installer automatically uninstalls the old drivers and installs the new one without even requiring a Windows reboot.
The worst you’ll see is a momentary black screen while the graphics drivers are switched over.
Is It Necessary?
First of all, driver cleaners were generally only necessary for graphics drivers.
Driver cleaners were only necessary because users ran into problems when installing new versions of graphics drivers.
So, is running a driver cleaner necessary?
Only if you’ve updated your graphics and experienced crashes or other problems.
Driver cleaners aren’t for you unless you run into an actual problem after updating a driver.
But don’t say we didn’t warn you – you probably don’t need it.
Given the lack of updates, we’d recommend against even running this outdated program in the first place.
One thing’s for sure – you don’t need to spend money to download a driver cleaner.
It won’t fix typical PC problems or make your rig run faster, whatever scammy websites may say.
In summary, driver cleaners are largely a relic of the past.
Image Credit:Long Zheng on Flickr
