DRIVER DETECTIVE is a piece of malware that will thrash your computer. Do not under any circumstances downloaded or install it. Well, downloading won't hurt, but don't run it or do anything it says.

Your first clue should be that it tends always to be found in a colorful advertisement, rather than a reputable place like MajorGeeks. Its cheerful page makes it seem like it's completely free - there is no mention of it being trialware or anything of the sort. And it promises to scan your computer to look for out of date drivers, which sounds great... sort of. By now if you're me you're starting to get a bad feeling, like you get for all those so-called Registry "cleaners."

Anyways, to make the long story into the short one, were you to install it it would appear to work until it came time to update all those out of date drivers it found on your computer (interestingly enough, it's not totally bogus, it actually does find legitimately out of date drivers and identifies your motherboard and other devices correctly). That's when the bait and switch happens.

To update them you need to 'register' the product, so it takes you to their website on the wrong side of town, puts a bag over your head, then tells you you need to fork over twenty dollars or something like that for the program to fix the problems. Oh, but it's a generous kidnapper, it'll give you 2 extra years for an extra ten bucks (a savings of $69! or some such ludicrous amount). By now the cute graphics aren't so cute anymore.

You can leave the site, uninstall the program, and I would recommend doing several spyware / registry scans from legitimate programs like Spy Sweeper, CCleaner, Ad-Aware, SD Spybot Search & Destroy, et al. Hopefully no permanent damage (so to speak) has been done. But your best option of all is not to even try it. Some normal prudent freeware sites are actually still offering this turd. Don't they scan their software? I guess it's not an actual virus or trojan, but it's a piece of malware for sure, and may be a malware loader - that is, a way to let in other naughty programs through it's little hole in your firewall.

Steer clear!