We remove unnecessary device drivers in Windows. How to completely remove a driver from a Windows system

Hello dear visitors! I decided to write a short but useful note and tell you how to remove the driver. The computer is an unpredictable thing, so anything can come in handy, even removing the driver for a specific device. For what? But different things happen, perhaps the driver was installed crookedly, or not exactly the one you need. But it’s not always possible to install a new one over the old one, so you can remove the device driver and install a new one.

After uninstalling and rebooting, the system should find the new device whose driver you removed and offer to install a new driver for it. Perhaps you have another reason why you need to carry out such a procedure. In fact, everything is very simple, now you will see for yourself.

First we need to launch the task manager. To do this, right-click on the icon “My computer” and select “Properties”. A window will open in which on the left click "Device Manager".

In Device Manager, select the device whose driver you want to remove, right-click on it and select “Properties”.

A warning about driver removal will appear. If any programs were installed with this driver, you can check the box next to “Uninstall driver programs for this device” and click the “Ok” button.

For modern Windows operating systems, there is often no need to separately install video card drivers, since they are already included in the system. This is especially true for users who do not want to install numerous additional components that come with the driver.

If you are an avid gamer or just need some utility utilities, it is recommended to install updated versions of NVIDIA, AMD or Intel drivers to get performance improvements, stability and new features.

Sometimes you may encounter problems after installing drivers. There is always a possibility that a new version may conflict with the installed game, or that some application that uses the driver will begin to behave incorrectly.

This is why very often you may need to completely remove the driver from the system. In most cases, removal using standard system tools helps, however, in some cases, the driver removal process may not be completed or may be interrupted due to a failure, the cause of which is difficult to eliminate on your own. To do this, you can use our separate instructions.

In these cases, a third-party Display Driver Uninstaller application will be useful to remove NVIDIA, AMD and Intel video card drivers. The program is compatible with all latest versions of Windows. The developer suggests running the utility in safe mode, but this is not a necessary condition. The user is asked whether to boot in Safe Mode or not. If you answer yes, then make sure to save the progress of all changes, because the computer will immediately begin to automatically reboot.

The program can also enable/disable automatic driver updates via Windows Update. You will receive information about this when you start the program.

All main functions of the program are displayed on one screen. At the top, the user can select the graphics driver that they want to remove. This function comes in handy when you change your video card and want to remove all driver components installed on the system.

Display Driver Uninstaller supports three operating modes:

• Uninstall and reboot (highly recommended)
• Uninstall without rebooting (may lead to black screen issue)
• Remove and turn off (to install a new video card)

Several additional operations are also available: uninstall NVIDIA GeForce Experience and enable driver installation via Windows Update by default. In the “Options” window you can enable the removal of 3DTV and Physx, as well as the removal of temporary folders C:\NVIDIA And C:\AMD, which are used when installing drivers

Before you select any of the options, make sure you have downloaded the graphics card driver package from the manufacturer's website, you will need it after you have completed uninstalling the existing drivers.

If you select the “Uninstall and reboot” option, you will notice that the system automatically reboots after a short period of uninstallation. If you do not choose to install the driver automatically, Windows will use the generic video card driver, which may run at a lower resolution.

Note: The source code for the Display Driver Uninstaller application is available for inspection on GitHub.

Conclusion

Display Driver Uninstaller is a useful application for reliable and complete removal of drivers in cases where you encounter problems with their operation. The utility effectively performs its task, even if the driver does not work correctly or is not updated.

The program ensures that all traces of NVIDIA, AMD or Intel drivers are completely removed from the system.

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You, of course, know that when you connect any device to a computer, the operating system installs a driver for it. This process in Windows 10 is completely automated and occurs without user intervention. The installed driver will be present in the operating system even if the device is never used on that computer again. Now remember: how many different devices have you connected to your PC and, accordingly, how many extra drivers does your operating system load? Let's figure out how to easily deal with this problem.

Driver Store Explorer – a program for working with drivers

A small and simple program can help simplify working with drivers. Download it from the developer’s website and unpack it to a folder on your hard drive (the utility works in a portable version, installation is not required). We launch the program file and wait for the application to launch and conduct an initial check. After finishing, we will see the main window with a list of drivers installed in our operating system.

In the presented list, drivers are grouped by type of equipment, so, with a little experience, you can easily determine which of the previously connected devices corresponds to the installed driver. This will not be difficult to do, since all additional information is displayed about each driver:

• inf file name;
• Driver type;
• Current version;
• Release date;
• The amount of space occupied.

Managing installed drivers is very simple. Right-click any of the lists and use the context menu to perform the following actions:

• Select a driver or all drivers;
• Select old drivers;
• Delete;
• Export driver data to a csv file.

The following functions are available using the buttons on the right side of the application:

• Refresh – rescan the database of drivers present in the operating system;
• Add Package – install the driver using the inf file;
• Delete Package – remove the driver using the inf file;
• Select Old Drivers – mark old driver versions.

Instead of an afterword

Using the Driver Store Explorer utility, you can visually view the drivers installed on the system, as well as find and remove unused ones. And, finally, the most important thing - before you start removing drivers, do them just in case

Good day, dear friends, acquaintances and other personalities.

The installation process is simple and straightforward. During the installation, do not forget to uncheck anything that is offered to you as an add-on (especially if you already have it).

It is possible that you will need to supply separately .NET Framework. I already wrote more about what it is, how and why in the material “What is the Microsoft .NET Framework and why install it.”

As for use, when you launch the program, you first need to set the Russian language. To do this, follow the link " Language" and from the drop-down list select the item " Russian", and then press the button " Apply":

After this process, the program language becomes Russian, and therefore we simply go to the "tab" Analysis and Purification", select with checkmarks those items with drivers that we want to remove and the garbage from which we do not need in the system.

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Next, decisively press the button " Cleaning" (if you suddenly doubt that something superfluous will be swept away, then it is better to press " Analysis" and see the list of files and registry keys that the program wants to remove).

Oh, and yes, of course, there is the possibility of restoring deleted data, for which there is a corresponding tab " Recovery".

With this, the whole process actually ends, and therefore we can move on to the afterword.

Afterword

As a permanent tool, it is not really necessary (fortunately, driver versions do not change so often), but it is quite possible to keep it in mind and keep it on hand as a whisk to avoid possible problems. For example, I sometimes encountered the fact that the driver is not “swept out” entirely during normal uninstallation, which makes it difficult to install another (no matter new or old) version, and therefore either causes blue screens of death or does not allow them to be eliminated normally (if they are caused by current driver).

Something like this, short and useful. Use it for your health, maybe it will come in handy on the farm;)

As always, if you suddenly have any questions, thoughts or additions, then comments are at your service.

It happens that you stop using the device. But you should remember that a certain number of files that control it remain in the system. This is part of the driver program. The question arises: is the driver correct?

The easiest way is to use the standard tool for all Windows operating systems - "Device Manager". Simply left-click the device to be removed from the system, right-click, selecting the menu, and go to “Properties”. Go to the "Driver" tab and select the "Delete" button. After this, remove the device. This is the answer to the question of how to properly remove a driver, but there are also more advanced and convenient methods.

Now turn off the PC if required to remove the device. But, as already mentioned, these are not all existing options for solving the problem, since after this procedure some files still remain in the system, which can lead to problems in the future. Therefore, to clean the system of unnecessary drivers, it is advisable to use specialized programs, especially for people whose line of work this is related to - service engineers and system administrators, as well as technical support specialists.

This will slightly speed up the performance of the system where such software is used. We are talking about an automated mode, so how to completely remove a driver is a matter of the operation of the program algorithm, and it will no longer concern you. It should be noted that one should not expect miracles. Such programs are the same as the benefit that can be obtained by using them is calculated at best + 1-5% to productivity. But still, many people who are interested in tuning the system like such “whistles”, which give the illusion of great benefits.

In fairness, we must add that many of these programs have much more useful functions than those from the system. But we will return to this issue later in the article. For now, we will list the most common paid programs - Driver Cleaner, Driver Sweeper, Drivertool. It should be noted that there are free solutions (although the above ones are also available with sufficient functionality in the shareware version). Acceptable freeware program options include DriverPack Solution, Drivers Installer Assistant, Drivers Pack Unpacker & Installer, Guru3D Driver Sweeper.

Let's look at the functionality of the DriverPack Solution program, the code of which is distributed under an Opensource license, which provides for publication of the source code and its modification, as well as use. The developers of this most useful program did not stop at solving the problem of how to remove the driver. This software allows you not only to remove unnecessary drivers from the system on Windows XP/Vista/Seven, but also to find and install them, as well as perform an update by downloading it from the Internet, thus greatly facilitating the installer’s already difficult work.

Note that there are two versions of this software: Full and Lite. The first is distinguished by the size of the distribution kit, occupying 3 gigabytes. A very useful thing, as it solves problems with identifying and installing drivers in one fell swoop. Just insert the disk, and everything else will be done automatically. Drivers will be taken from an extensive database of packages and installed immediately. Let's note a huge number of laptop vendors for which drivers are especially compatible - Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, Acer, Sony, HP, eMachines and so on. If you wish, you can make amendments to the database and remove a driver that is unnecessary in your opinion, thus changing the considerable size of the distribution kit.

But why do this if there is a need to constantly have a universal collection of drivers? Just write DriverPack Solution to an external USB hard drive and take it with you. And now we don’t have the problem of how to remove the driver or install the latest update. It should be noted that there is a Lite version. If you are absolutely sure of the future presence of a high-quality Internet channel on all machines where you will install drivers, then take this version. All necessary drivers will be downloaded after the hardware is identified, and will subsequently be updated automatically.