Snappy Driver Installer

[River Valley Computer]

Snappy Driver Installer is decent, it lacks maturity compared to DriverPack Solution. Snappy Driver is slower installing drivers, hangs a lot(like Display, USB 3.0,etc.) and many time errors occur(Chipset, Card Reader, etc.). When I was first introduced to DriverPack Solution I wasn't all that satisfied because it will install junk software automatically, the software was bloated and poorly translated from Russian. Now I would recommend DriverPack Solution because the software has a very elegant interface(UI), quicker installation of drivers and less failure because of code maturity. Just my opinion(July 19, 2016) but always loved your work SDI Devs.

I'm sorry but we have to respectfully disagree with you. We have been in this business for over 20 years and Snappy Driver has been probably one of the best driver programs that we have utilized recently (last 2-3 years) and believe me, we have tried a bunch. DPS is a junk software proliferator. Snappy Driver and FABS are our two most favorite and utilized programs in our arsenal. We will support SDI in whatever they need.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Snappy Driver Installer is decent, it lacks maturity compared to DriverPack Solution. Snappy Driver is slower installing drivers, hangs a lot(like Display, USB 3.0,etc.) and many time errors occur(Chipset, Card Reader, etc.). When I was first introduced to DriverPack Solution I wasn't all that satisfied because it will install junk software automatically, the software was bloated and poorly translated from Russian. Now I would recommend DriverPack Solution because the software has a very elegant interface(UI), quicker installation of drivers and less failure because of code maturity. Just my opinion(July 19, 2016) but always loved your work SDI Devs.

LOL, I wouldn't use DPS if you paid me. The extra bundled BS is a big no no. SDI is fast, works great and just plain stomps DPS into the dirt.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Well now we know who the DPS shill is.

 

[kaveesnan]

LOL, I've been testing SDI in my environment from R100s-200s, then stop using it for awhile because of the hangs and slow downs then came back in mid R300s, and still wasn't that impressed. I will check it out again if you say its quicker and better then DPS.
P.S. To remedy the problem with DPS I just delete everything in program folder.
Also LOVE Fab's AutoBackup!

SteveSi to answer your question DPS has a portable version (10-11 GB). If you are trying to slipstream/integrate/automate driver install, I prefer to collect the drivers needed(*) and use Microsoft DPINST.exe(**).

(*) to collect the drivers from Windows OS I use Double Driver 4.10 because it show all drivers installed on host machine or target machine(very handy feature), automatically selects only third party drivers so it make it easier to backup installed drivers and NOT WINDOWS GENERIC DRIVERS.
(**) DPINST.exe has a 32 bit and 64 bit version. Also has command line switches (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff544775(v=vs.85).aspx).
SteveSi if you have any questions, you can message me.

 

[SteveSi]

I have now tried SDI with the following parameters

-autoinstall -showconsole -autoupdate -norestorepnt -autoclose

This does not do what I wanted\expected\hoped. I expected it to download any required driverpacks, install all required driverpacks and then close.

Instead, it seems to install any offline driverpacks that are present and at the same time download some driverpacks - except that as soon as the offline driverpacks have been installed, SDI closes! The console shows me it was 40% of the way through a torrent download when it closed.

What I would like is a command line parameter to make it detect only required driverpacks, download them, install them and exit.

Is this possible please?

What I am trying to do is add SDI to Easy2Boot. The user can then add any unaltered official MS Windows Install ISO to the Easy2Boot USB drive, boot to E2B and then pick the ISO file and an XML file. From then on, Windows Setup will run completely automatically and wipe the disk, copy over the Windows files, reboot, run SDI to download and install any required drivers, run Chocolatey to install any apps and then finish.

I have this working well now, except that the driverpacks must be already downloaded first. I was hoping to provide an option that would automatically download and install all required drivers...

Any help appreciated!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I have now tried SDI with the following parameters

-autoinstall -showconsole -autoupdate -norestorepnt -autoclose

This does not do what I wanted\expected\hoped. I expected it to download any required driverpacks, install all required driverpacks and then close.

Instead, it seems to install any offline driverpacks that are present and at the same time download some driverpacks - except that as soon as the offline driverpacks have been installed, SDI closes! The console shows me it was 40% of the way through a torrent download when it closed.

What I would like is a command line parameter to make it detect only required driverpacks, download them, install them and exit.

Is this possible please?

What I am trying to do is add SDI to Easy2Boot. The user can then add any unaltered official MS Windows Install ISO to the Easy2Boot USB drive, boot to E2B and then pick the ISO file and an XML file. From then on, Windows Setup will run completely automatically and wipe the disk, copy over the Windows files, reboot, run SDI to download and install any required drivers, run Chocolatey to install any apps and then finish.

I have this working well now, except that the driverpacks must be already downloaded first. I was hoping to provide an option that would automatically download and install all required drivers...

Any help appreciated!

That sounds pretty cool. I would venture to say that most of us keep the driverpacks up to date and offline so that shouldn't be a big concern.

 

[BadPointer]

I have now tried SDI with the following parameters

-autoinstall -showconsole -autoupdate -norestorepnt -autoclose

This does not do what I wanted\expected\hoped. I expected it to download any required driverpacks, install all required driverpacks and then close.

I think you can do it multiple stages.

First stage.
Run SDI to Install drivers from local drivers.

Second stage.
Change settings, so that SDI wouldn't be able to find local driverpacks.
Remove indexes.
Run SDI to download latest indexes.
Run SDI to download driverpacks and install drivers.

 

[SteveSi]

Thanks for reply, so do you mean use I should rename Indexes folder then use
-PATH <pathToDrivers> to point to empty folder?
Won't it always download full 26GB every time if I do this and won't it download them to the new folder?

Sorry, I need some help on what parameters to use?
Can I get it to only download required updates for that system and only if they are not already present?
Maybe I need a new parameter or maybe some more example commands scripts?

 

[BadPointer]

SDI is designed to be used as a drop-in replacement of DPInst.exe by renaming SDI to DPInst.exe and supporting the -PATH <dir> switch. You should use -drp_dir:<dir> instead.

If you want SDI to download only required driverpacks and install drivers, you have to delete old indexes, download latest indexes(-autoupdate -onlyupdates) and make sure that SDI can't find local driverpacks(-drp_dir:<dir>).

 

[SteveSi]

Sorry to be a pain...

If I delete the Indexes folder and use
-autoupdate -onlyupdates -autoclose -nosnapshot -drp_dir:G:\xx
then it just downloads new *.bin files into the Indexes\SDI\ folder
If I then run
-autoinstall -nosnapshot -autoclose
it does not download any driver files and just fails to install anything

The meanings of the switches on the web page is not very clear and the exact (logic) that SDI uses is not detailed anywhere that I can find.
Could you be so kind as to give me the required commands that I need, as far as I can see there is no way to make it only download the required updates for a particular system or download just the driverpacks that it does not already have - but I don't fully understand how it works...

 

[BadPointer]

-autoinstall -nosnapshot -autoclose
it does not download any driver files and just fails to install anything

I tried it myself and it doesn't work for me as well. The -autoinstall switch doesn't work with downloading driverpacks on demand and even it worked, -autoclose would cause SDI to close after downloading driverpacks.

SDI needs to be updated to be able to handle this use case without user interaction.

 

[SteveSi]

Thanks for testing it.
Maybe also a -requiredonly switch is needed?

 

[sapphirescales]

DPS used to be great. Sure, it installed crapware if you didn't actually READ before clicking frantically (just like your average computer illiterate user). However, their new version sucks beyond belief. You have to install every driver one by one. If you select only the ones you want, it still installs the crapware and there's nothing you can do about it. I don't know about you, but I don't have 30 minutes to sit in front of the machine and click every single driver manually. SDI wins by a long shot.

 

[Volya]

There is an issue with SDI when being used in WinPE. On some newer laptops (the latest one I've tried is specifically HP EliteBook 840 G3) the network driver does not get installed.
I execute SDI by:

SDI_x64_R469.exe -nogui -license -expertmode -norestorepnt -showdrpnames2 -preservecfg -autoinstall -autoclose

It just starts, and exists without installing. But wen opening it manually via GUI, it works fine. Tested this behaviour in WinPE 5 and WinPE 10.
This happens only on these 2015+ laptop models.

 

[kaveesnan]

I tested SDI R474 on 58 machine on July 29, 2016 for the free Windows 10 Upgrade. I RETRACT what I said, SDI is superior than DPS. Faster Overall Performance (startup time and driver installs), WINPE compatibility and Less Failures, Hangs NOW (only failed once on usb 3.0 driver).

 

[BadPointer]

It’s been a while since I last posted here, so here are some highlights.

• As you know there was a rough patch a few months ago but things went back to normal by now. The work on driverpacks and SDI was never interrupted and updated SDI and driverpack were being pushed to users as usual.
• You might have noticed that recent versions of SDI have a valid certificate. A guy who is known as Simplix have been providing hosting for my website(sdi-tool.org is hosted on the same server as http://update7.simplix.info/) all that time and now he's also signing SDI with his certificate which he's using for his own projects such as UpdatePack7R2.
• I’m no longer a lone developer. A member of TN forums(@glennd ) has joined our team as a programmer. You can see his contributions on SourceForge.

 

[mraikes]

It’s been a while since I last posted here, so here are some highlights.

• As you know there was a rough patch a few months ago but things went back to normal by now. The work on driverpacks and SDI was never interrupted and updated SDI and driverpack were being pushed to users as usual.
• You might have noticed that recent versions of SDI have a valid certificate. A guy who is known as Simplix have been providing hosting for my website(sdi-tool.org is hosted on the same server as http://update7.simplix.info/) all that time and now he's also signing SDI with his certificate which he's using for his own projects such as UpdatePack7R2.
• I’m no longer a lone developer. A member of TN forums(@glennd ) has joined our team as a programmer. You can see his contributions on SourceForge.

Thanks for the update! I'm glad things are working out better for you now, and thank you for creating this great tool.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I’m no longer a lone developer. A member of TN forums(@glennd ) has joined our team as a programmer. You can see his contributions on SourceForge.

Awesome!!! Congrats to @glennd for helping out.

 

[BadPointer]

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[nlinecomputers]

Is 1 good or bad????