ThinkPad Drivers Update Utility

ThinkPad Drivers Update Utility is a simple-to-use software program that can automatically scan your notebook to identify outdated drivers, find their latest version online, and seamlessly install them. It's designed for ThinkPad notebooks.

Installation and interface

The setup operation is fast and shouldn't give you any trouble. Although this is not mentioned here, the app integrates an entry for itself in the system autostart sequence, so it automatically runs at every Windows startup until told otherwise.
You're welcomed by a clean and intuitive interface, split into several panes for the scanning, downloading, backup, restoration, and settings.

Find, download and install the latest ThinkPad drivers

ThinkPad Drivers Update Utility looks for drivers for the sound card, webcam, network adapter, USB, router, printer, wireless network connection, Windows XP, Vista and 7, chipset, monitor, video card, Bluetooth, AC97, motherboard, FireWire, and DVD.
Once the scanner finishes, you are can check out all outdated drivers along with the newest version found online by the application, and select the ones you want to install. Buttons for selecting and deselecting all items are available, as well as for downloading all of them.

Back up drivers and configure app settings

The tool can be instructed to quickly download the drivers, and then to install them. In addition, it implements options for backing up the original drivers to file in case you want to restore them later if Windows starts experiencing compatibility issues.
As far as program options are concerned, you can include the hidden devices in the driver scan, ask the app to download all new drivers right after scan, and power off the computer once all downloads are completed. Moreover, you can remove ThinkPad Drivers Update Utility's entry from the autostart sequence, and automatically download and install updates as soon as they're found. Settings can be restored to default.

Evaluation and conclusion

Everything worked smoothly in our tests, and the program didn't hog system resources. It carried out scan jobs swiftly while remaining light on system resources usage. However, ThinkPad Drivers Update Utility hasn't been updated for a long time, and the price of the registered edition seems too much.