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Driver Updater query

I have a question about driver updaters. AVG charged me for such a program recently. I wondered why I was being charged for this since I had a two-year subscription to its Ultimate package. Turns out AVG has a new software app that updates not only its software drivers but everyone else’s drivers too.

Oddly, a company like Microsoft charges thirdparty companies that use its operating system lots of money to ‘authenticate’ drivers, but suddenly, AVG has 20,000 other manufacturer drivers to update. It's strange that AVG has moved into this area.

Could you possibly shed light on what is going on with driver updaters and why software manufacturers aren’t updating their own drivers? Maybe they are? What is AVG’s game here? And why do we need such an app?

—Steven Sherk

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:

Driver updates are like software updaters in that they’re designed for convenience by allowing you to keep all your drivers up to date with a single program. At least that’s the theory.

This means that AVG—or indeed any other driver updater—isn’t involved in developing driver updates; instead, it’s merely acting as a convenient conduit to them. Hardware manufacturers continue to create their own drivers, then either sign them themselves or submit them to Microsoft for WHQL certification (Microsoft hasn’t charged a fee for these tests since 2014).

If a driver is WHQLcertified, it will be added to Microsoft’s driver database and can be installed and updated through Windows Update. After installing a fresh copy of Windows for the first time, all installed drivers are WHQL-certified.