Driver Magician can backup all your drivers from Windows XP and restore them when you need them. This can be very helpful in case you do not have the driver CD with you and need to reinstall Windows for some reason.
The program is small, with a simple interface: the Backup and Restore buttons do the entire job. There aren’t many confusing settings/options: we only get to select all the drivers that are installed with Windows or select individual ones.
Some drivers that come with newer service packs of Windows XP may not be present in older versions, so it may be necessary to back them up. In Vista and Windows 7, almost all the drivers are installed with the OS itself and will work best only if they are signed by Microsoft (or approved for Windows Vista/7). The program can differentiate between drivers: those shown in red are the ones installed with Windows.
Drivers are backed up into separate folders with the corresponding .INI and .SYS files. The program can restore the drivers from compressed folders and self-extracting files. The drivers can also be updated with this program (although it is not that efficient in this respect: all it does is open the download link in the default browser, and we need to download the drivers manually).
This new version supports Windows 7 and has an updated driver database. It works fine even in 64-bit Windows 7.
Ensure all your hardware devices and software applications are performing at peak performance levels
Comments (4)
The quick install and small memory footprint would lead you to hope that the rest of the program runs the same way. That's no sleight-of-hand: Backing up every driver on my computer, from Bluetooth and tablet controllers to Intel chip sets, took less than five minutes. Users can select drivers individually or hit the Select All button at the bottom of the spreadsheet-style layout. Hitting the Start Backup button opens a directory window, so you can choose where the drivers will be saved to, and then another click begins the process.
We recommend creating a designated folder for backing up your drivers, since Driver Magician will mimic your computer's folder tree and save each driver to an appropriate folder. Saving those to your desktop would be harder to clean up than splaying a deck of cards across a stage. It doesn't do much else. If you need to use the drivers it's backed up for you, you'll need to install them yourself. However, you'll be hard-pressed to find such a useful tool that's as easy to use as this, and that's no trick...