WARNING: JUNK AHEAD
Jonathan Parkyn puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software stuffed with junk
Junk offender:
If you’re looking for a free tool to update your PC’S drivers, make sure you avoid Driverpack Solution. Its website – which ranks high in a Google search for ‘driver installer free’ – displays company logos of several reassuringly well-known tech “partners”, boasts about an impressive (but wholly unsubstantiated) worldwide user base of almost 50 million, and promises to “install drivers for free and solve driver problems on any device”.
Oh, and there’s a Youtube video showing Russia’s former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev singing the tool’s praises. Yep, you read that right.
Frankly, Driverpack Solution is one of the weirdest junk offenders I’ve had the misfortune to come across. Run it, and the program will take over your entire PC desktop, displaying a full-screen window that’s clearly intended to look like the official blue Windows Update that states “we are configuring your computer”. Various unspecified “drivers and toolkits” are installed on your computer whether you want them or not, while an
“assistant” provides a somewhat surreal running commentary in text bubbles down the side of the screen.
Among other things, the assistant promises that – after a reboot – it will install what it describes as a “gentleman’s set of required software” (see screenshot), as though it was a Victorian barber offering me something for the weekend.
Sadly, I never got to find out what gentlemanly treats the tool had in store for me. The whole experience proved too much for my poor test PC, which crashed during installation, forcing me to quit. Even without this promised set of gender-specific junkware, however, Driverpack Solution still managed to fill up several hundred megabytes of harddrive space with unwanted tat.
Avoid this bizarre tool at all costs. In fact, avoid dodgy-looking driver updaters altogether – Windows Update will do that job for you, without installing a ton of rubbish into the bargain.
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