Avago-Earo wrote:ZATZAi wrote:As someone who works in the tech industry, I don't really trust IO Bit as a company. Just saying, I won't bother getting into why...
Maybe you could recommend something else? I know very little about these things at the moment and if I've made a bad choice I'd like to know my options. Better to cut my losses now rather than later.
To keep drivers up to date, the best tool is your web browser. Go to the manufacturers site and download the latest driver and firmware. With the exception of Graphics cards most things rarely update, or they only update a couple times after first being made then they don't support it anymore. It's worth making up a Word Doc of the components in your system and the URLs to the manufacturer support page for each item, this list is usually around a dozen items or some such so it's not that much work.
If you want something more powerful than the Windows uninstaller try Revo Uninstaller.
http://www.revouninstaller.com/If you want something to speed up your PC use CCleaner, but you should only run it as needed.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleanerIf you want something to get the malware off your system, toolbars and all that junk try Malwarebytes
https://www.malwarebytes.org/If you want to keep from getting toolbars and other crapware on your system in the first place you need to read the prompts when your installing or updating software. Always choose the custom or advanced option, always uncheck the stuff you don't want, just clicking OK/NEXT over and over is how most users get into trouble. The information you need is there, you just have to read it and consider your answer before committing (In other words,
read the fine print). You can always install updates from NiNite which automatically unchecks unwanted addons for you, and/or use UnChecky which will opt-out of most of those options for you automatically.
http://ninite.comhttp://unchecky.com/If you want something to completely uninstall a graphics driver use the previously mentioned DDU. But again you should only have to use this when you are having issues, normally the clean install option in the driver update (When you choose custom) is enough.
http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/There's a lot more to it all than just this of course. These are just some basics, but this is what I'm willing to put into a simple forum post. Ultimately it's up to the user to learn the basics about computer maintenance themselves. Computers are a lot like cars that way, you can take a basic car repair class, or read a bunch of books etc and learn how to change your own oil or you can pay a mechanic to do it for you. Either option is valid, but what's not good is to do nothing and just drive the car into the ground. Computers are the same, their machines that require periodic maintenance and care over time if you want them to perform at their best...