Driver Fusion Manual

A manual to Driver Fusion

About

Driver Fusion is the complete device and driver solution for your PC that can manage and monitor your devices and their drivers. You can install and uninstall drivers with Driver Fusion, including the ability to backup, restore and download drivers with ease. Health check lets you scan and fix detected issues quickly, including an automatic driver updater to update outdated drivers and install missing drivers. Furthermore, you can disable, enable and restart devices while Windows is running. With our cloud-powered removal engine you can delete the driver entries that are left behind by the normal uninstallers, which is especially useful when you are updating a driver or changing a device.

In addition, Driver Fusion can help you to identify devices that Windows does not recognize, generate a device and driver report, backup and restore your desktop icons and screen resolution, or read the sensor values of your devices. Driver Fusion provides you with all the information that you ever need to know about your devices and their drivers, allowing you to detect and solve problems or simply find your computer specifications in one place.

Get started today and take advantage of the wide and growing range of features that Driver Fusion has to offer and keep your PC running as efficiently and effectively as possible.

System requirements

Operating system

Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit or 64-bit), Vista (32-bit or 64-bit), 7 (32-bit or 64-bit), 8 (32-bit or 64-bit), or 8.1 (32-bit or 64-bit).

Running Driver Fusion requires administrator privileges. Windows will prompt you for permission automatically on Microsoft Windows Vista and newer.

Software

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile, which is available as a free download on the Microsoft website.

Installation

Installation

Run the installation file and follow the on-screen instructions. The installation should only take a couple of minutes. Please ensure a safe installation by only downloading Driver Fusion from trusted sources.

Premium version

The free version is only intended for personal, non-commercial use. After installation there is no limitation on the available functionality, but some features are available only to premium users.

You can unlock more flexibility, features, and functionalities by purchasing a premium license. Driver Fusion Premium is available for purchase at the Treexy store[treexy.com].

Registration

Account

Support and licenses are managed with your Treexy account. Through your Treexy account you will have instant access to your unlocked functionality in any version, including the free version, of Driver Fusion.

Registration

You can unlock more flexibility, features and functionalities by purchasing and registering a premium license. With such a purchase you will receive a product code that you can add to your Treexy account. You can register a new Treexy account by clicking on sign in and create new account. If you already registered a Treexy account then you can sign in with your existing account.

If you need more information about account registration then you can:

• Visit order assistance[treexy.com] for graphical and detailed instructions.
  
• Contact us[treexy.com].

Internet access

To be able to register and sign in with your Treexy account you have to make sure that Driver Fusion has access to the internet.
The 1 internet access indicator on the sign in screen shows whether Driver Fusion has internet access Internet access or not No internet access. If Driver Fusion shows that it does not have internet access then this is usually caused by a firewall that blocks the connection. Microsoft explains how to add a program to the Windows Firewall in Allow a program to communicate through Windows Firewall.























Registering a new Treexy account.

Product activation

Product code

With your purchase you will receive a product code. This product code is required to activate Driver Fusion Premium for your Treexy account. To get a product code you need to purchase Driver Fusion at the Treexy store[treexy.com].





















A feature that requires you to buy Driver Fusion Premium.

Product activation

Product activation is a fast, simple and one-time process. You can activate your product code in any version of Driver Fusion. To activate you have to sign in with your Treexy account and click activate a product in the account section of settings.

If you need more information about product activation then you can:

• Visit order assistance[treexy.com] for graphical and detailed instructions.
  
• Contact us[treexy.com].

Activating your Driver Fusion Premium license.

Health check

Introduction

Health check helps you to keep your computer up to date by automatically finding and installing the latest drivers. You can also create a backup of all installed drivers at once.

This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium[treexy.com] users.

Scanning for issues

The issues that health check can detect are divided into three different sections, namely driver backup, missing drivers and outdated drivers. All sections are scanned by default but you can deselect a section if you do not want to include it in the scan.
Health check starts scanning for issues as soon as you click scan. Each section automatically shows the detected issues once the scan is completed. All detected issues are selected by default, but you can choose to deselect any detected issue so that it will be skipped when fixing the found issues. You can automatically fix the detected (selected) issues by 1 clicking on fix.






















Health check scanning for driver backups, missing drivers and outdated drivers.

Driver backup

With driver backup you can automatically create a backup of all installed drivers. Backups can be installed/restored with device control using driver overview.
The destination folder is automatically scanned for missing or outdated driver backups in order to avoid creating duplicate backups. It is recommended to change the destination folder to an external hard disk, or similar, to easily access your driver backups and to keep them safe from system failures. You can add your own destination folders in the driver backup settings[treexy.com]. A different destination folder can be picked, when scanning has finished, by 2 clicking on the folder Folder icon. The last picked destination folder is automatically remembered for the next time you use health check.
You can click on filter drivers if you want to deselect a driver that will be backed up. This is only recommended for expert users.

Missing drivers

Health check can also detect all devices that do not have drivers installed. The latest driver can automatically be downloaded and installed if there are drivers available from Treexy's online driver database. For some devices there are no downloadable drivers, even though Treexy's online driver database is constantly updated. For these devices you can often use device identifier in device control to help you search for a driver online.

You can also deselect a driver to prevent it from being downloaded and installed. This is only recommended for expert users.

Outdated drivers

With outdated drivers you can scan all devices for outdated drivers. The version of the installed driver is displayed together with the version of the latest driver that can be downloaded from Treexy's online driver database. The outdated drivers are classified by their version and release date in order to represent the severity. The severity is shown for each driver by an image of bars. A very outdated installed driver is represented by three red bars Red bars , an outdated installed driver is represented by two orange bars Orange bars , and an almost up-to-date installed driver is represented by a green bar Green bars .

You can view the release date, provider, and driver signature of the driver by 3 clicking on the more link when hovering over the driver. The provider of the driver is the name of the company that released the driver. The driver signature represents a measure of integrity and identity of the driver and has one of the following values: none, signed, authenticode verified by trusted publisher, authenticode or WHQL. By default, only drivers that have at least a signed driver signature are recommended as Windows will not install unsigned drivers. You can change the minimum driver signature level in the advanced section[treexy.com] of the settings.




















The first outdated driver deselected to prevent it from being downloaded and installed.

You can also deselect a driver, to prevent it from being downloaded and installed, or 4 exclude the device or the driver entirely from the scan results. This is only recommended for expert users. You can exclude devices and drivers from the results by clicking on the more link when hovering over an outdated driver.

• Click on exclude device to prevent any driver suggestions being show for the device, this includes the current available driver as well as any future updates.
  
• Click on exclude available driver to just exclude this suggested driver from the scan results. This only applies to the current available driver, when a newer driver update is released it will be included in the scan results again.

You can manage the excluded devices and excluded available drivers in the health check settings[treexy.com] section.

Windows Security

Occasionally, you might receive a Windows notification asking you to confirm the driver installation. You have to select install this driver software anyway in order for health check to successfully install the driver. If you selected don't install this driver software you can always scan for outdated drivers again. See the advanced settings section[treexy.com] for more information about signatures, and how they verify publishers.

















Select 'install this driver software anyway' to successfully install the driver.

Driver family

Introduction

Driver family enables you to backup and delete the software and driver entries, such as files and registry keys, that were installed by a vendor installer. Driver families got their name because all driver versions of a certain type and vendor are combined into one driver group, lets say one big family. For example all NVIDIA display drivers are combined into a NVIDIA family in the display category. Each driver family belongs to a certain category to make it easier to find amongst all the other driver families. Driver family lists all the different driver families by default and does not distinguish between unused and used drivers. Driver families are especially useful when you are updating a driver or changing a device.

Driver families

Driver family contains dynamic and pre-defined driver families to provide fast and easy removal. Each driver family contains a list of possible entries that a driver can use (such as files, directories, registry keys and registry values). These entries include additional features such as process and service removal and vendor uninstall support. You can either backup or delete the entries for the selected driver family.

Delete

Select the driver family that you want to delete and 1 click delete. 2 Clicking on details allows experienced users to view and select the individual entries before the delete or backup is executed. The details option is only available in the 3 details view. Backups are automatically created when you use delete and can be restored in history[treexy.com].






















Deleting a driver family.

Installed driver families

You can also choose to view only the installed driver families on your system by 4 clicking all driver families and then on installed driver families. Driver family will now automatically search for driver families that have any entries available on your system.

This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium[treexy.com] users.























Driver family detecting the installed driver families.

Device control

Introduction

Device control allows you to view and manage the devices and drivers installed on your computer and contains all information you can possibly need for troubleshooting. Each device is accessible by clicking through the category list on the left side of device control. You can also find a specific device by searching for its device name in the category list.

For each device there are five different sections available with distinct capabilities. These sections of information can be accessed by clicking on the drop-down menu Dropdown and then on the name of the section. The names of these sections are device overview, device resources, device identifier, driver overview and driver files. Once you select a device in the category list you can explore the information that these sections provide.

• Uninstalling a device is done in device overview.
  
• Driver backup and restore is done in driver overview.

This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium users.

Disconnected devices

Device control lists all devices by default, but you can also choose to view only disconnected devices by 1 clicking on all devices and then selecting the disconnected devices option. Disconnected devices are devices that are no longer connected to your computer but still have drivers installed.

Troubleshooting with device overview

With device overview you can view and manage the current status and properties of a device. A colored bar, representing the status of the device, is also shown left of each device in the category list to provide you with a direct overview.

Device overview is a great place to start troubleshooting in case of problems as it allows you to learn everything there is to know about the device and its properties. The current status tells you if the device is functioning properly and a simple restart might sometimes be enough to fix an easy problem. When the problem is not resolved as easily then you can read the device's unique properties so that you can immediately start searching for solutions that apply just to the device that you actually have installed. Simply copy and paste the information by selecting a field in the overview and pushing ctrl+c. Good values to start with are the description, manufacture and hardware ids. Specifically the hardware ids as they are vendor-defined identifications unique for that specific kind of device.

Disabling a device.

Changing the device status

Device overview can also be used to influence the status of a device. For the majority of the devices you change the current status by 2 clicking on enable, disable or restart. This will not necessarily resolve all problems for devices that have encountered problems, but you can often make warnings go away by disabling the device. To force Windows to scan for changes made to devices connected to your computer you can click on scan.

Clicking on 3 uninstall will uninstall the driver that is installed for the selected device. Uninstall will also remove the device from Windows. If you want to keep a copy of the driver you should backup it first. If the device is still connected to your computer you can get it back by using scan but this will also automatically install a driver for the device (if available).

Device resources

Device control can also show you the resources each device has in use or reserved. There are four types of resources, namely input/output (IO), interrupt request (IRQ), direct memory access (DMA) and memory. Most devices do not have resources in use or reserved. Typical examples of devices that have often resources in use or reserved are graphic cards and network adapters.

Identifying unknown devices

With device identifier you can identify the type of class, description and manufacturer of unknown devices. This is very useful when you do not know the manufacturer or type of the device and Windows also does not not recognize it. A maximum of five possible devices are returned after 4 clicking on identify. Use the magnifier to directly search on the internet for the identified information. This can help you track down the manufacturer's website for more information about your device.

Device identifier found five possible devices for this device.

Driver overview

With driver overview you can access all the available information of the driver that is currently installed for the device. Driver overview also includes option to backup and install drivers. Install is always available but it is not possible to backup or view properties of the driver when there is no driver installed.
All useful information is shown in the driver overview, including the manufacturer, release date, version and signature of the installed driver.

Backup a driver

A backup of a driver for a device can be made by following these simple steps:

• Click on a device in device control.
  
• Select driver overview from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click on backup.
  
• Click on the desired driver to backup.
  
• Click on next.
  
• Click on the desired destination for storing the driver backup.
  
• Click on OK and the backup will be created.

Under driver overview you have the option to backup drivers for the device. To backup the driver you have to 5 click backup and select the driver to backup. With driver backup it is possible to either 6 backup the driver that is installed for the selected device, or to backup 7 an online driver (if available).

Take a close look at the release date, version and type of backup (installed or online) and click on the driver that you would like to backup. In most cases the installed driver will be a good choice, as you have experienced it working correctly for your system configuration for a while already, so that way you can always revert back to a good working driver.

It is also possible to influence the suggested online drivers by 8 clicking on by match and selecting a different option. By match is used as default and combines multiple properties of the driver to determine what the best matching latest drivers are. By version simply includes the latest drivers based on version number. By release date uses the release date of the drivers to determine the latest drivers. Some vendors do not increase their version numbers consistently and might make changes to an older driver which means that in some cases an older or newer driver might be suggested when switch between the possible options.

Selecting the driver to backup.

Once you have picked a driver to back up and clicked next you are asked to select the destination to store the backup. The built-in default backup destination is the Driver Fusion installation folder but it is recommended to change the backup location to an external hard disk, or similar, to easily access your driver backups and to keep them safe from system failures. Click on the destination to use and click OK to create the backup. If you wish to add more destinations then you can do so in the driver backup settings. Created backups are placed in a separate folder within the chosen destination folder.

Selecting a location to store the backup of the driver.

Installing a new driver or backup

Restoring old backups or installing new drivers requires you to follow these simple steps:

• Click on a device in device control.
  
• Select driver overview from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click install.
  
• Pick a source (backup, file, or online).
  
• Click on the desired driver that you want to install.
  
• Click on OK and the driver will be installed.

By clicking on install you have the ability to install a driver from 9 three sources:

• Backup: contains all compatible drivers that were previously backed up by Driver Fusion ,either through health check or device control.
  
• File: select the information file (.inf) from the driver that you want to install.
  
• Online: contains all compatible drivers from Treexy's online driver database.

Note that backup and online automatically hide the driver that is currently installed. This is done so that only useful options are shown and the interface remains clutter free. Should you wish to reinstall the current driver then the installed driver can still be included by 10 selecting the include installed driver option, instead of exclude the installed driver option which is selected by default.





















Selecting a driver from Treexy's online driver database.

Driver files

With driver files you can view the files that are currently in use by the installed driver. The majority of the installed drivers have at least one file in use. The information file (.inf) and the catalog file (.cat) are also included (if available).

Desktop

Introduction

Desktop helps you to backup and restore the desktop icon positions and resolution of each screen. This information is stored in desktop items. Desktop always lists all previously created desktop items, sorted from new to old. Multi-monitors are supported for both desktop icon layout and screen resolution.

Backup icons and resolution

Creating a backup at the right time can prevent you from having to spend a lot of time in reorganizing desktop icons. To create a new desktop item, click backup. Desktop items are automatically created when a driver family that belongs to the display category is deleted (requires Driver Fusion Premium). Most other driver family categories do not cause a change in desktop icon layout or screen resolution.

Restore icons and resolution

Select a desktop item from the list and click restore to restore your desktop icon layout and screen resolution to that moment in time.

Restoring a desktop item.

Delete a desktop backup

You can delete any desktop item from the list by selecting the desktop backup and then clicking delete. Desktop items are very small so it is not worth deleting desktop backups to save disk space.

Monitor

Introduction

Monitor gives you insight into the sensors from the devices installed on your computer, such as the power usage, temperature and clock speed.
This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium users.

Devices

You can monitor sensor information from your processor, graphic card, motherboard, hard drive and fans. The majority of devices from Intel, AMD and NVIDIA can be monitored. However, not all devices have sensors or can be monitored. Device support is expected to grow over time.

Refresh

By default, the computer sensor values are refreshed every five seconds. You can change the automatic refresh interval by clicking on refresh every and then on the new time interval.

Changing the automatic refresh interval.

History

Introduction

History allows you to view and restore the operations that you performed. The two possible maintenance actions are the backup or delete of driver family entries. Each maintenance action automatically stores information about the driver family entries in history items, but the information that is stored depends on the type of maintenance action. The backup maintenance action only contains information about the backed up driver family entries, whereas the delete maintenance action additionally includes information about the deleted driver family entries.

Restore

Select a history item from the list and click restore to restore the backed up driver family entries. If you selected multiple driver families for a maintenance action, you can change the driver family that is to be restored by clicking on view and then on the name of the driver family.

Changing the driver family that will be restored.

Delete

You can delete any history item from the list by selecting the history item and then clicking delete. History items can be quite large for some driver families (such as the NVIDIA display drivers), but deleting a history item results in the inability to restore the backed up driver family entries.

Report

With report you can create a printable HTML report of the selected history item. The report contains a detailed list of all the files, registry keys, folders, etc that were influenced by the action that was undertaken for the selected history item. It can be viewed with any internet browser, so Driver Fusion is not required to view the history item, which makes is easier to share with others (e.g. when asking for help or feedback).

Filters

Introduction

Filters enables you to create new or extend built-in driver families to detect software and driver entries that were installed by a vendor installer. Each filter item contains a list of possible entries that a driver can use (such as files, directories, registry keys and registry values). Filter items are listed for my filters by default, click on my filters to view built in filters or all filters. Only filter items with one or more entries are accessible in driver family.

Filter item

If you want to add a new filter item, 1 click the left most add and enter the required information. You can delete any filter item by selecting the filter item and clicking the left most delete. You can not delete built in filter items.

Adding a new filter item.

Filter entry

To add a new filter entry, select a filter item from the list, 2 click the right most add and enter the required information. The information that needs to be entered depends on the type of the filter entry (file, directory, registry key, registry value or service) that you want to add to the filter item. You can delete any filter entry by selecting the filter entry and clicking the right most delete.

Adding a new file filter entry.

Settings

Introduction

With settings you can customize how several features work. Settings is best suited for experienced users as the default settings are good for most situations. You can open the settings by clicking on the cog icon in the top right corner of Driver Fusion.

General

The general settings.

• 1: Option to share anonymous data with Treexy to improve Driver Fusion's driver detection.
  
• 2: About shows information about the Driver Fusion release that you are currently running, such as credits and version.
  
• 3: Choose the interface language used by Driver Fusion. If you want to change the way dates are displayed in Driver Fusion you have to use the Windows regional settings.
  
• 4: Option to determine if Driver Fusion should automatically update to the latest version upon starting the application. If you disable this setting then you have to manually click on the update notification when you want to install the update. Automatic updates are only available for Driver Fusion Premium users.
  
• 5: Option to include experimental preview versions of the upcoming Driver Fusion release in the updates. This settings is only recommended for expert users.

Advanced

The advanced settings.

• 1: Option to either show or hide the separate bar with hints that briefly describe the functionality of currently selected feature.
  
• 2: Option to show a message asking you to confirm each critical event (such as the removal of a driver family). This should only be disabled by experienced users.
  
• 3: Option that refers to the system restore points that are automatically created before critical events. This should only be disabled by experienced users.
  
• 4: A drop-down menu which is used by health check and device control to only download and install signed drivers. As this is a minimal level the results will also include drivers from any level listed below the current level. For example, when you select authenticode any drivers that are signed with WHQL will also still be included in the results. Disabling this setting on Windows XP can greatly increase the amount of available drivers due to the limited amount of signed drivers available. Unless you are an experienced user, you should not disable this setting on Windows Vista and higher as only signed drivers can be installed by default.
  
  Signatures are used to digitally sign software to confirm the author of the software. These signatures are based on the code of the program, which means that if the code is altered the signature will no longer match, thus ensuring that the code has not been altered or corrupted since it was signed. Driver Fusion distinguishes between multiple signature levels ranging from no signature at all to WHQL. No signature does not mean that the driver is unsafe but it does mean that no steps were taken to provide verifiable information about the origin of the driver.
  
  Authenticode is a Microsoft code-signing technology which combines digital signatures with an infrastructure of trusted entities to ensure that the driver originates from the stated publisher. Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) applies an additional test framework to the software to verify that the driver package is compatible with Microsoft Windows. If the product passes these tests then it may apply for a WHQL release signature.
  
  It is important to note that code signing does not offer any protection from faulty code. Signing just ensures that the code did not change after signing and that it is from the stated publisher. Even when trusted entities verify the signatures, sometimes for such low prices that anyone can buy them, the code does not change. Therefor we test drivers on multiple systems before releasing them to the public. As the additional levels only add small degrees of extra certainty, because of the reasons discussed in this paragraph, we decided to default the minimum driver signature to signed instead of authenticode/WHQL.
  
• 5: A drop-down menu used to change the Windows behavior when it is about to (re)install drivers for devices that do not have drivers installed. This is especially useful if you do not want Windows to reinstall the default driver again.
  
• 6: Link used to generate a HTML computer report of all the devices and their installed drivers. This report also includes a summary of the computer which makes it easy to retrieve and share your system's configuration.
  
• 7: Link that lets you save a Treexy diagnostics report. When you contact support you might be asked to send this report by email. The report contains useful (chronological) information, such as button presses and drivers being download/updated, so that we can better find the root of your problem. Note that the contents of this report have been compressed so that they form smaller email attachments but this makes them unreadable when you open them in text editors such as notepad.

Driver backup

The driver backup settings.

Under driver backup you can manage all your backup destination folders. You can choose between these backup destination when creating backups with device control or health check. New destination folders can be added by 1 clicking on add a destination. Click on a listed destination to see 2 the number of stored backups at that destination and to either 3 open the destination in Windows explorer or to 4 delete the destination from the list.

Driver family

The driver family settings.

• 1: Option to stop processes and services that are blocking entries from being deleted.
  
• 2: Option used to force the deletion of entries from your system that are otherwise not possible to delete. These entries are often protected, locked or in use by the operating system, other users, or programs. This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium users.
  
• 3: Option used for the ability to select, and thus delete or backup, multiple driver families at once. This should only be enabled by experienced users.
  
• 4: Option used for automatically backing up files, directories and registry entries during a delete in driver family.
  
• 5: Option used for automatically backing up your desktop icon positions and resolution of each screen before deleting display driver families from your system. This functionality is only available for Driver Fusion Premium users. The created backup can be restored in the desktop section of Driver Fusion.

Health check

The health check settings.

Under health check you can manage the devices and drivers that you have excluded from the scan results in health check. By default the excluded devices are shown. Click on 1 excluded devices to switch to excluded available drivers. To delete an excluded device or available driver you can 2 click on an excluded available driver and 3 click the delete button. When you delete an excluded device or available driver it will be included again in the scan results of health check.

Account Settings

Account

The account settings.

The account settings screen provides you with basic account managing functionality such as 1 changing your password, 2 changing your email address ,and 3 changing your account picture. In the case of your account picture you will be redirected to the Gravatar website. Gravatar[en.gravatar.com] is a free avatar service and Driver Fusion uses it for easy avatar management.

Under products all the licenses are listed that are active for your account. You can activate the product code by 4 clicking on activate a product and entering the product code that you received with your order. The 5 name of each license and its expiration date are shown in the list. When you purchase a new license you will get an email with the product code that you can use to activate that license for your account.

Go to the Driver Fusion order assistance[treexy.com] page for a detailed and graphical guide about product activation.

Support

Purchase or activation

If you have any questions or problems with purchasing or activating Driver Fusion, please read order assistance[treexy.com].

FAQ

Some questions get asked more often then others. All these questions and their answers have been grouped together in the FAQ[treexy.com] page. The FAQ is a good starting point for finding answers to problems regarding general use of the Treexy software and services.

Forum

You can join the Treexy community and discuss about Driver Fusion and other Treexy products. If you have a question or problem you may find an answer on the forum[treexy.com]. Feel free to share your experience, ideas and suggestions with us.

Contact

Please take a look at the other support options first before using the contact[treexy.com] page. You will find most questions or problems already answered.