Topic: Will you please add the most recent driver for my device?
Question:
Why is the driver included in the DriverPacks not the most recent version?
[REQ] Driver Update to version xxx
A good question, frequently asked.
Answer:
A little history first...
Wim used to always include the latest versions and released them often! DriverPacks was much smaller then. It has grown into over ten main packs for NT5, hoards of 3rd party DriverPack and Packs for NT6... The DriverPacks includes tens of thousands of device drivers for a over a dozen different platforms ranging from Win2k through Win7 (NT 5.0 through NT 6.1 x64).
Since we include over 90% of all available drivers for windows there is the potential for many conflicts when using the full set and especially with 3rd party DriverPack too. Most drivers are not written very well, In fact it is the teams consensus that they are oblivious to how badly they actually do write them. The point is you just can't drop a driver into the packs. There is an entire process involved, Dump the HWIDs from the packs and the old and new driver compare and eliminate duplicates, verify signing, release to testing team, likely fail several times and then Beta, RC, and Release. Since there are only a couple of people active on adding drivers there is a huge amount of work to do and only a few people to do it. The few who do help do so after they work their 40 hours, exercise, help the kids with homework, eat dinner and take a shower... you know all that real life stuff! (Just like you!) 
We like to stay current but being current takes a back seat to Stability...
This was a change the team made from Wim's original process.
We feel that Stable packs are preferred to buggy ones that have all the latest drivers.
Just because a driver is new does not make it better... (And never use version 0.0 of anything )
It might be better but we don't know until it has been released and tested by a large audience.
We release our packs to the testing team as nightlies (alphas).
We have over 50 official testers and an unknown number of unofficial ones with access to hundreds of machines.
- If you would like to be a tester please ask! - Especially if you do installs often on many different PCs.
If a pack makes it a week on the testing team with no issues we consider it a Beta.
With a little luck and a few reports of success from the team it will then become a Release Candidate (RC).
It often takes months to groom a nightly pack into a Release Candidate.
Once a pack achieves RC status it usually will become a news article with a download link on our home page...
If no issues are reported after the public testing it will be released as a 'Final'.
There is much going on in the background in our hidden team forums that are not visible to the public.
It is a lot like a bee hive, not much to see from the outside but bustling with activity inside.
The short answer is being current takes a back seat to being stable. No reported issues = stable.
We primarily care that there are zero issues with our packs...
No BSODs, no crashes, no lost functionality, no lost performance, no bugs.
If all hardware is supported, and there are zero reported issues from our users.
Then we (The DriverPacks team.) believe we have done the best possible job.
8 million people download the DriverPacks a month.
We assume that represents multiple installs per download.
We normally have zero reported issues...
- How would you rate that on a 1- 10 scale ?
Quite often people will ask [REQ] we add a newer driver.
"Come on already, It has been out since yesterday!" 
I often like to ask them why?
They will then, invariably, seem perplexed and then give me a goofball answer like "because it is newer!"
So then I just can not resist the temptation to ask "What issue are you having that the newer driver addresses?"
Now they are really perplexed... "huh? What..." / "What do you mean?" "I don't understand"
I will continue with...
1) Does it make your device faster?
2) more reliable?
3) What problem / issue were you having with the old driver?
If you are having an issue will you please describe it in detail?
At this point they must meekly report they were not having any issues at all.
Which is the answer that I expected and already knew I would elicit.
So I then press on.
1) What issue does the newer driver claim to correct?
- In three years I have not had a single REQuester that was able to answer this simple question.
- for that matter I have never had a user ask us to update a driver because they were having an issue with the older version.
So this behavior makes me think to myself...
Why waste our time asking if the only reason to add the driver is so it reports a higher version number????
PLEASE... 
You just want bragging rights??? - I have the latest driver! I totally rock dude!
Tie a pork chop around your neck and go play with the lions. OK? Darwin-ism is a good thing .
In all likelihood the newer driver is probably just going to introduce bugs into an otherwise rock solid solution...
If a driver address' a known issue or adds HWIDs then sure... It goes right to the top of the list of things to do.
- 98% chance we knew that the newer version was out way before you did!!! (It IS our specialty)
If you don't even know what the difference is then don't bother to ask. We will either ignore you, or make fun of you.
Don't get me wrong, I am a gamer and I have more than once had to update my drivers to get the game to work, however, gamers never come in here and request we update our drivers. Not even once... ever...
At least I would understand someone saying hey those old drivers have a known bug with "SuperGame 3000" that is fixed in the newer driver from ATI / Nvida ver 10000.2.01
I must conclude that gamers are either a little brighter or they are more understanding than average.
If a driver is years old and we missed it
and there is a newer version
and it fixes a bug
- then - yeah please let us know!
Just be sure you can report what issue you have
that you have already tested the new one
and that it did in fact fix the issue you were having.
- Then - that would be considered cool!
- you will be expected to test a nightly
and report the test packs success or failure
and possibly post your logs.
- We refer to this as helping us to help you.
PS Before you make a comment on how long it takes us to release please at least offer to help us!
If you don't have the time to help then clearly you already understand our situation.
As always I encourage DriverPacks Moderators to edit this FAQ as you see fit and welcome the feedback of the DriverPacks team!
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