TechRadar Verdict
Ashampoo Driver Updater is a good tool for keeping your Windows drivers up to date to avoid performance issues. It scans your PC as quickly as possible for outdated drivers and lets you update them where required. However, the driver updater has some drawbacks, such as having no option to schedule driver scans and being costly compared to competitors.
Pros
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Fast hardware scans
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Fast driver downloads
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Backup and restore are both available
- +
One-click update
Cons
- -
Relatively expensive
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Windows only
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Ashampoo Driver Updater is a device maintenance tool and driver updater for the Windows operating system. Usually, wrong or old drivers are an enemy of every computer system and can lead to system instability, data loss, or even security vulnerabilities.
Ashampoo Driver Updater keeps track of your drivers and ensures they’re updated when necessary. In doing so, Ashampoo can help guard against frequent system crashes and computer errors, allowing you to optimize productivity levels.
Ashampoo is a software company that develops a broad range of software tools. It maintains its headquarters in Oldenburg, Germany. The organization actually offers a range of different solutions outside of its driver updater program, including video editing software, ad blocker tools, and a file manager.
In this review, however, we'll focus on Ashapoo's driver updater tool. We’ll evaluate Ashampoo Driver Updater based on specific criteria, including pricing, features, compatibility, customer support, and user interface.
Ashampoo Driver Updater: Plans and pricing
Ashampoo Driver Updater is available through an annual subscription. It costs $33 for an annual license covering three personal computers in a downloadable format but keep an an eye out for deals, as we’ve frequently noticed the price being cut in half.
Compared to other competing driver updater tools, Ashampoo is not the cheapest. For instance, both IObit Driver Booster Pro and SlimWare Utilities DriverUpdate are more affordable. However, there is a free tier available for users of Ashampoo Driver Updater but they will have to put up with limited functionality. For example, the free version takes longer to scan and update drivers than the paid version. However, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee allowing you to try the software before committing yourself financially.
Features
Ashampoo Driver Updater has many of the features you'd expect to find in a driver updater software suite including:
Driver Detection
The Ashampoo Driver Updater can scan all drivers on your computer and identify which ones are outdated or not. The scan is rapid and easy to do. If you wish, you can set the driver updater to run a full scan whenever your PC boots up. Also, as soon as you launch Ashampoo Driver Updater, the software will conduct a scan of your PC for hardware and drivers. Once this is complete, you’ll then be presented with a list of both up-to-date and out-of-date drivers, as well as processor and RAM information.
Automatic Updates
You can update your drivers with the tool after scanning. Ashampoo uses a colour-coding system to quickly inform you of the status of each driver. A green icon signifies that a driver is up to date, a yellow icon is used for drivers that have had an update available for less than 365 days, and a red icon informs users that a driver has had an update available for more than 365 days. You can then either install updates individually or update all of them with a single click.
There are many benefits of updating your device drivers, including:
- Fixes wireless connection, sound, and printer issues
- Reduces risk of system crashes and freezes
- Improves your gaming experience
- Fully optimized system usage
Driver Backup and Restore
You can save your driver backups to an external hard drive or DVD and restore them when needed. Sometimes, you’ll need previous versions of your drivers, for example, when an update results in failures. If this happens, it doesn’t mean the end of your PC. Instead, you could get the previous version from a backup and restore it with the Ashampoo Driver Updater.
Compatibility
The driver updater is compatible with Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. This widespread compatibility makes it a very versatile tool. In fact, it is particularly well-integrated with Windows 10, with notifications appearing in the operating system's Action Center.
Interface and in use
It’s easy to download and use the Ashampoo Driver Updater. To do so, start by visiting the company’s official website. You can pay online and download the software or have it shipped to you in DVD format. Picking the DVD format requires an extra payment.
After downloading, run the installer on your computer. The downloadable file is under 100MB, and its installation doesn’t take long from start to finish. After installing, you can open the driver updater and start using it.
The user interface is clear and straightforward. You have visible options to scan, backup, or restore. After scanning, it’ll show you the drivers that require updates and those that do not. Admittedly, Ashampoo does lack the interface skins and transparencies that come with Obit Driver Booster Pro but although these are nice touches, they are only aesthetic of course.
More practically, there is a settings section with Ashampoo's software where you have the option to auto-scan your drivers every time you launch the software or whenever your PC boots afresh. The software is also multilingual, supporting over two dozen languages.
Support
There are various support options for the Ashampoo Driver Updater, including email, telephone, and live chat. The live chat and telephone support work pretty well, as did the company's email response. However, you also have the option to pay for premium email support that’ll make Ashampoo treat your inquiries as a top priority. This paid option costs $4.95 for two years.
There’s also an online Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) page you can consult to resolve common problems, as well as a help desk article that runs through the fundamentals like how to conduct a system scan and update your drivers.
The competition
Ashampoo Driver Updater has many competitors, such as IObit Driver Booster Pro and DriverDoc. Despite having similar features, Ashampoo costs $19 for a download and is more expensive than IObit ($11.50). On the other hand, DriverDoc (costing roughly $40) is more costly than Ashampoo but has more features.
Today, there are a plethora of driver updater tools on the market, including the likes of Auslogics Driver Updater, AVG Driver Updater, and many more. Although many of these may beat Ashampoo in certain areas, from power to speed, Ashampoo Driver Updater is a great all-rounder.
Final verdict
Ashampoo Driver Updater is a tool that lives up to its promise. It’s effortless to use and performs its required functions very well. Its main drawback is the cost, as it’s more expensive than many of its rivals, so it may be a good idea to get to grips with the 30-day free trial to see if you really want to sign up for an annual license.
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