Updating drivers

The Driver Updates page checks your installed drivers against Windows Update (and, for NVIDIA GPUs, against NVIDIA directly), then lets you install the real, applicable Windows Update drivers it finds. NVIDIA GPU drivers are reported, not installed: install those from NVIDIA's own app. True to BRUTAL's honesty rule, it will never tell you you're “up to date” when it actually couldn't finish checking — it says “Couldn't fully check” instead.

How the scan works

When you click Scan, the app runs three phases:

1. Enumerate every signed driver on your PC (via Windows' own driver database) along with its hardware IDs.
2. Query Windows Update for newer driver packages and match each result to your real hardware by hardware ID — not by guessing from a name.
3. Check NVIDIA directly if you have an NVIDIA GPU (see NVIDIA driver updates) and report any newer GeForce driver for you to install from NVIDIA's app.

A driver is only flagged when a genuinely newer, applicable package exists. The scanner deliberately does not flag a driver as “outdated” just because it's a few months old — age is not the same as a newer version existing, and age-based flagging was the single biggest source of false alarms in tools like this.

Reading the result badge

After a scan, the badge at the top tells you exactly where you stand:

• “N UPDATE(S)” — real, applicable updates were found. They're sorted to the top of the list so even a single update is easy to spot among a hundred up-to-date drivers.
• “UP TO DATE” — the check completed and found nothing newer.
• “COULDN'T FULLY CHECK” (amber) — part of the check couldn't finish (for example Windows Update timed out, or you have an AMD/Intel GPU whose latest version has no public API). Hover the badge to see the reason. This is the honest middle state: zero updates but an incomplete check is not reported as “up to date”.

Installing updates

Installing drivers is a Pro feature. Scanning and viewing results are free.

1. Tick the checkbox next to each driver marked Update available, or use Select Gaming Drivers / Select All.
2. Click Install Selected (or Install All to grab everything installable in one pass).
3. Confirm the prompt. The app creates a system restore point first, then downloads and installs through Windows Update's own installer.
4. If any driver reports that a reboot is required, you'll see a warning — restart when convenient to finish.

Some entries are marked as manufacturer download rather than a one-click install. These are “BrowseOnly” catalog drivers that Windows Update lists but cannot install through its API. The app shows them so you know an update exists; for those, click the Download button to open the manufacturer's page, or let the app fetch them from the Microsoft Update Catalog where it can.

Best practice

• Run a scan, then start with Select Gaming Drivers — GPU/Network/USB are the drivers that actually affect game performance and latency.
• Let the restore point be created (don't cancel that step). It's your one-click rollback if a driver misbehaves — see System restore points before changes.
• Close games and full-screen apps before a GPU driver install so it can swap the display driver cleanly.

Common issues / troubleshooting

• Scan seems stuck / takes a minute. The Windows Update search is a slow, synchronous Windows component. The app bounds it (about 75 seconds) and will move on rather than hang forever — if it times out you'll see “Couldn't fully check”, not a false “up to date”.
• “Couldn't fully check” for an AMD or Intel GPU. Neither vendor publishes a machine-readable “latest version”, so the app honestly can't confirm it. Check amd.com or intel.com, or use AMD/Intel's own auto-detect tool.
• Install asks for admin. The whole app runs elevated by design — driver installation needs it.
• Group Policy blocks WU drivers. On managed PCs, IT policy can hide driver updates from Windows Update. The app warns about this and won't override enterprise policy; use the manufacturer download instead.