Something is up. I damaged the installation disk for my digital camera and now cant download my pictures to my computer. Call me old fashioned but in the old days you just plugged your camera in the USB port, the Found New Hardware Wizard would detect it and either automatically install it using windows software or if you needed a driver, you went online to the manufacturer, model and number and downloaded the driver directly to your control panel and installed it yourself. It may have been a little time consuming but it didnt cost anything and it gave you a sense of accomplishment when you were successful. And it was way more rewarding than having a device that didnt work
My understanding of a driver is that it is a file containing code that enables your computer to recognize your device and your device to be operated or cotrolled from the computer console. Most companies want their devices to work, so they are more than obliging to make their drivers available on line to download free of charge.
However, something is up and its on the order of those spyware-removal scams that want $39.00 to remove spyware that they put there themselves. A lot of us got pretty indignant over that kind of scam, and this is the new wrinkle. No matter what company, no matter how specific their driver information, no matter how authentic the company websites, when I try to download a driver I am redirected to a website that wants to scan my computer for outdated drivers and update them for me. These websites all offer free driver downloads. The download is free, but if you want to install anything, the registration fee is $39.00. One website found 8 outdated drivers, another found 13.
Ive never paid $39.00 for a driver in my life. And the scan doesnt even mention my digital camera. If my computer had drivers for the camera, it would work. How do you update something that isnt there.?
Okay, a lot of people probably think its worth $39 to know their drivers are updated and their computer is working smoothly. Even if its like the emperors new clothes and nothing has changed, theres a price that can be put on peace of mind. Let them have their scans, but let me have my drivers!
There must be over 100 websites offering free driver downloads and ALL of them redirect to one of two companiesDriver Detective and ParetoLogic DriverCure. A Consumer Reports lookalike website reviews them and ranks Driver Detective #1, DriverCure #2 and something called DriverGenius #3. At the bottom of a suuposedly third party critique is a link to download Driver Detective. Every website comes with these enthusiastic testimonials that make you know something is fishy. Heres something else. Always when I would get troublesome spyware or adware on my computer that I couldnt get rid of, all I had to do was go online, look up the problem and find plenty of people having the same problem and step by step remedies how to remove them. Out of the hundreds of websites Ive looked through, only one (consumer complaints) had anything bad to say, and it was ranked about 800th out of a Google search of about 10,000 for Driver Detective.
Its one thing that the service is a scam and takes your money and doesnt do what it says it will do, its one thing that its false advertising to offer free driver downloads, then charge you $39.00 to install them, buts something else if theyve found a way to manipulate the registry so that ALL of those websites, ALL of those testimonials, ALL of those redirects, ALL the Google searches, are phony. That Im not reaching the Internet at all, but an in-house charade where all searches end up the same. Ive heard of a spoof being a counterfeit page put up by a site that looks just like the real page only with false information. We know the lengths that spyware and malware will go to to disguise itself and self perpetuate itself. Pareto Logic also markets RegCure, which give them unrestricted access to the Registry. The lengths that an unscrupulous software company will go to to swindle somebody out of $39.00 are almost pathological to consider. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!
Anyway, what can I do to get out of this maze short of burning my computer? And how do I get my drivers?
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