Questions and answers

Is DriverMax free?

The scan is, and always has been. You can scan as often as you like, read the results, back up your drivers and see the reliability record on every update without paying anything and without an account.

What the free version limits is how many drivers you may install: two a day and ten a month. A PRO licence lifts that limit and changes nothing else — see the prices.

Do I need an account?

No. Downloading, scanning and installing under the free limit all work with no account at all.

An account only becomes useful once you own a licence, because holding the licence is what it is for: it is what lets you move that licence to another PC or to a fresh install of Windows. DriverMax offers to create one at the moment you activate a code, not before.

Which versions of Windows does it work on?

Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7, in both 64-bit and 32-bit editions, and the matching Windows Server editions.

Older Windows installs drivers with a different command from the one Windows 11 uses. DriverMax works out which version it is running on and uses the right one, which is why an old laptop is not a second-class citizen here.

How do I actually update a driver?

Open the Drivers tab and press Scan this PC. DriverMax lists every device, marks the ones with a newer driver available, and shows how that exact driver behaved for other people who installed it. Tick the ones you want and press Install.

Nothing is installed without you pressing a button, and the dialog names both the version going on and the version coming off.

How can DriverMax offer a version that is not on the manufacturer's site?

Manufacturers release drivers more often than they update their download pages, and plenty of updates reach hardware partners months before they are listed publicly. Most of them are digitally signed by the manufacturer, and DriverMax shows you which ones are.

How does it decide which driver is best for me?

Not by version number alone. The match is made on your device's hardware and compatible IDs, then weighed against the driver's date, the operating system it declares, and how that package has behaved on other machines. A newer number that Windows would refuse, or that has gone wrong for other people, is not an improvement.

On how many computers can I use one licence?

One at a time, unless you bought a licence that covers more. Each computer that uses the licence takes one of its places.

It is not welded to that machine, though. Settings lists every PC using the licence with a Release button beside it; releasing one frees its place immediately, uninstalls nothing, and simply drops that PC back to the free limit.

There is also a lifetime licence with unlimited PCs for anyone who looks after a household or a workshop — every machine, one payment, no places to juggle.

Where is my registration code?

It is emailed to the address on your order as soon as the payment clears, and it looks like DMXN-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

The PC you bought on does not need it — the purchase activates that machine by itself. The code is for your other computers, and for the day you reinstall Windows. The registration page walks through it with pictures.

I am reinstalling Windows. Will I lose my licence?

No. The tidy way is to open Settings on the old install and press Release before you wipe it. If you forget, enter your code again afterwards and DriverMax will tell you the code is on another of your own PCs and offer to free it.

And if the old machine is gone for good, it sorts itself out: a place that has not been used for thirty days is released automatically the next time another computer asks for it.

I already have a DriverMax 17 code. Does it still work?

If it was bought and never used, yes — enter it and DriverMax will take it. If it has already been redeemed, the licence is on your DriverMax 17 account: sign in with that same email and password instead of entering the code. Free and promotional DriverMax 17 batches cannot be carried across.

I received an email from 2Checkout. Is it genuine?

Yes. 2Checkout handles our payments, so your receipt and any billing correspondence come from them. They are a long-established payment processor with a strong anti-fraud policy, and your card details never touch our servers.

How do I buy, and what if I change my mind?

The prices are here — a month, a year, two years, or a licence that never expires. You can also reach the same page from Get PRO in the app's title bar.

There is a 30-day money-back guarantee. Ask us and we will sort it out.

It says my email address is already in use

An account already exists on that address — often from DriverMax 17. Sign in with it rather than creating a new one.

If you have forgotten the password, click the account button in the title bar and choose Forgot your password?. An account created in DriverMax 18 is reset from the app; one that came from DriverMax 17 has its password managed there, and the app will say so rather than sending an email that never arrives.

What if a new driver makes things worse?

Two ways back, both put in place before anything is replaced. Your existing driver is copied out of the Windows driver store into an archive on your PC, and Windows makes a restore point. Neither of them needs us, and neither costs you anything.

When Windows refuses to make a restore point, DriverMax tells you instead of claiming a safety net it did not get.

What is the percentage under each driver?

How that exact package behaved for everyone else who installed it — how many installs it has and how many of them worked. It is a count of outcomes, not a star rating.

Below five installs there is no figure at all, because one person's good afternoon is not a success rate. And a package that keeps failing stops being offered, so the ones you never see are part of the same system.

Are the drivers safe?

Packages are scanned for threats before they are offered, and their signature is checked. The app shows you which are signed, on the card, before you install anything.

How do I back up my drivers before reinstalling Windows?

Open the Backup tab and press Back up all. Every driver on the PC is copied into an archive you keep. This is the first thing we would do before wiping a machine, and it is free.

How do I uninstall DriverMax?

Like any other Windows program — Settings, Apps, Uninstall. Drivers you already installed stay where they are, because by then they belong to Windows rather than to us.

It says the driver database could not be reached

DriverMax could not get to our servers — usually a network problem, a firewall, or a security product blocking it. The scan still completes and still shows everything installed on the PC; it just cannot tell you what is available until it can reach us.

DriverMax uses whatever connection settings Windows itself uses, including a proxy configured there, so anything that lets your browser reach drivermax.com should let DriverMax reach it too.

I reinstalled Windows and now I have no network driver

This is the one case DriverMax cannot solve from the machine itself, because it needs a connection to fetch anything.

If you backed your drivers up first, restore them from the Backup tab and the network adapter comes back with them — which is exactly why we suggest backing up before a reinstall. Otherwise, a phone tethered over USB or a USB WiFi stick is usually enough to get online once, after which DriverMax can do the rest.

My code was refused

DriverMax says which situation it is in rather than just refusing. “No licence matches that code” usually means a typo — the letter O and the digit 0 are the usual culprits. “Already active on another of your PCs” means exactly that, and offers to free the other one. Checking a code never spends it.

Why has nobody answered my email?

Write to us from inside DriverMax rather than by email. Open Settings, find Help and contact, and press Contact us.

That form is the one that can actually be answered: it sends the application log and your Windows details with your message, which is what a question about a driver or an activation needs, and you can see and untick everything before it goes. The reply comes back inside DriverMax under Settings, and by email as well if you give an address.

What is a device driver?

The piece of software that lets Windows talk to a piece of hardware. Every model of every device works differently inside, so Windows defines how a class of device should behave and the driver translates that into whatever the particular chip actually needs.

It is why a graphics card, a printer and a fingerprint reader can all be driven by the same operating system, and why an out-of-date driver shows up as a device that stutters, sleeps badly, or stops working after an update to Windows.

Why do drivers need updating at all?

Because the hardware does not change and everything around it does. A driver written for the Windows of three years ago meets a new build, a new power model, or a new security rule, and the manufacturer issues a fix. Most driver updates are small corrections of exactly that kind rather than new features.

Which is also why newer is not automatically better, and why every driver here carries a record of how it behaved for other people.

Can we put DriverMax on a magazine cover disc?

Yes, and you are welcome to. Please take the current build from the download page so your readers get the latest version.