How to remove installed drivers in windows in various ways. How to remove the old driver

On Windows, when you install or update device drivers, the older versions of the drivers are kept on the system. Thus, the user is given the opportunity to return the old version of the driver at any time if the new driver is unstable (a useful feature, as shown by the case in which I had to). However, Windows does not automatically clean up or remove old versions of drivers, so over time, the amount of space occupied by drivers on the system drive becomes quite large. In this article, we will talk about ways to remove old versions of drivers (duplicates) using the system's internal tools (without using third-party software).

Windows stores all driver files in its driver repository () located in the directory %WINDIR%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository.

In my case, on a home laptop with Windows 7 (the system was installed almost 8 years ago), the FileRepository directory occupies about 11 GB and contains >5000 files. Not a lot! In particular, there are more than 20 different versions of the Nvidia video driver stored in this directory.

Important!

1. Under no circumstances should you manually delete driver files from the DriverStore directory.
2. It is highly recommended that you create a system restore point (Checkpoint-Computer -Description "BeforeDriversDelete") or .
3. After clearing the storage, when connecting new devices, you may have to download and install drivers manually.

Finding and Removing Old Drivers in Windows 7

Let's look at how to find and remove outdated drivers for Windows 7 (Windows 8 and Windows 10 have more simple methods removing old drivers, they are described below).

Let's get a list of all third-party drivers available in the system and upload them to a text file. To do this, in the command line with administrator rights, run the command:

dism /online /get-drivers /format:table > c:\tmp\drivers.txt

We import the resulting file into Excel and delete all unnecessary data so that only a table with the lists of repository drivers remains in the format: driver number in the system ( oemXXX.inf), name of original inf file, device class, manufacturer, installation date and driver version.

The resulting table will be sorted by column B (contains the name of the original inf file) and column F (driver installation date). Among the groups of drivers with the same name, we mark for deletion all versions of drivers, except for the latest one. In my case, it can be seen that most of the older driver versions belong to NVIDIA.

You can use the pnputil command to remove the driver:

pnputil.exe -d oemxxx.inf

Note. In some cases, you can only uninstall the driver with the key -f: pnputil -f -d oemxxx.inf

For convenience, we will form commands in an empty column to remove each driver using the formula =CONCATENATE("pnputil.exe -d ";A21)

It remains to copy the generated commands and execute them on the command line or in a bat file.

Thus, I removed about 40 old versions of drivers from the system, thereby freeing up about 8 GB of space (mainly due to NVIDEA video drivers).

Removing Old Drivers in Windows 10/8 Using the Disk Cleanup Utility

Windows 10/8.1 has more handy tool to remove old versions of drivers - the familiar cleanmgr.exe disk cleanup utility, which also allows you to clean the disk from .

Note. In Windows 10 and Windows 8 Update 1 and there is an option available on the system in a separate directory.

The cleanmgr utility will remove all old unused driver versions. However, at the same time, you need to understand that in the properties of the drivers in the Device Manager, the "Roll Back Driver" button will become inactive.

Hello dear visitors! I decided to write a small 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? That different happens, perhaps the driver was installed crookedly, or not quite the one you need. And installing a new one over the old one does not always work, so you can remove the device driver and install a new one.

After uninstalling and rebooting, the system should find a new device whose driver you will remove, 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.

We will remove the driver through the device manager, it seems to me that this is the only correct and reliable way. But still, it’s worth understanding that this is dangerous, near the “Delete” button it even says “Uninstall drivers (for experienced)”, I think that this was written for a reason. Well, it's okay, we're experienced :).

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 the device manager, select the device whose driver you want to remove, right-click on it, select "Properties".

You will be prompted to uninstall the driver. If some programs were installed with this driver, you can check the box next to “Uninstall the driver programs for this device” and click the “OK” button.

We continue a kind of cleaning the system of accumulated debris. Today we will touch on the topic of drivers. In the article, I only showed a little at the end how you can remove the driver. And in the article it's about "firewood" and it was necessary to remove them. There I wrote in more detail.
Therefore, if you want to remove or roll back drivers, read one of the articles above. And even better, both.

Now closer to the point. The following method will help you see and remove all drivers that are in the system and are not used. What kind of wood is this? Yes, everyone. These are the ones that were installed when you "plugged" some other person's flash drive once. This includes firewood that was installed along with some program for processing video or sound, as well as antiviruses, etc. software. Subsequently, you have already removed these programs, and tails in the form of drivers may remain. Also, this trash can remain after an incorrect reinstallation of Windows.

Now we will remove them. in a standard way Windows system.

We open Properties of the system. This can be done in three ways:

1) Win + Break/Pause

2) RMB on the icon my computer and select from the context menu Properties

3) Start -> Control Panel -> System

In Windows 7 and 8, you also need to select on the left Additional system settings

In this window, click the Create button in the "System Variables" field

Now in this new little window, type Variable name how devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices, a Meaning will be 1

Then click OK everywhere until the System Properties window.

It remains only to open this very Dispatcher.
Or in this very window of the System Properties, select the tab Equipment:

Or call and enter Devmgmt.msc or start devmgmt.msc into it

Everything. Now you can open the lists and you will see that translucent fads or with an exclamation point have appeared there. This is what we need:

Right-click on them and delete:

Also, all these actions can be simplified (before opening the Dispatcher) by typing in command line Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Then you can open the manager, set the display of hidden and delete.
Here it should be borne in mind that after a reboot, this option will disappear.

That's all. And as a conclusion, I would like to give a few notes:

1) If it doesn't work - try to do it under Admin

2) If not displayed - click on the "Update hardware configuration" button or restart the Manager

3) Watch carefully what you delete. If something then does not start - it's not my fault.

4) The list does not always display unnecessary ones. Everything that has been installed can be present there. Therefore, think again whether you need to delete it and whether it will definitely no longer be used. Although the firewood will then be installed again, but not for all devices.

Inspired by

When reinstalling drivers, sometimes a very unpleasant situation occurs when old drivers are not completely removed, as a result of which new, just installed drivers begin to conflict with them. Such a problem is quite rare, but, nevertheless, when it happens, the "tails" remaining in the system can seriously ruin the user's life, for example, causing BSODs or preventing some programs from starting. How to remove drivers so that there is nothing superfluous left in the operating system? For this purpose, you will need a special utility.

Benefits of Driver Sweeper

A small program called Driver Sweeper from the developer Phyxion is able to easily, quickly and without residue remove the driver of any device. In addition, using this utility, you can clean operating system from junk files left behind by past drivers, as well as get rid of unnecessary driver keys in the Windows system registry. In order to work with the Driver Sweeper program was convenient and safe, it has the functions of automatic backup and restoration of drivers (in case of unsuccessful removal of the driver, you can always roll back to the previous version).

How to use Driver Sweeper

Driver Sweeper is a freeware software, so it can be downloaded absolutely free from any suitable site, for example, from here: techspot.com/downloads/4266-driver-sweeper.html .

After installing the Driver Sweeper program, launch it using the shortcut on the desktop and in the main window go to the section language, since the utility runs by default on English language. Select the Russian language from the drop-down list and click apply.

After that, go to the section Analysis and purification- here is a list of all installed drivers. To remove a particular driver, you must mark it with a checkbox and click the button cleaning.

If you want to be sure that the program will not delete the necessary files along with the driver, you can first select the item Analysis(checking the required driver beforehand). The next window will display a list of files that will be removed when the device driver is uninstalled. Here you will need to uncheck those files and registry entries that you do not want to delete.

In case of unsuccessful removal of the driver, the Driver Sweeper program has a section Recovery. By going to the tab Recovery, you can undo your changes.

Driver Sweeper is a handy and extremely easy to use tool. It allows you to easily get rid of the remnants of past drivers in the system or remove the driver, so that later it does not cause any conflicts in the operation of devices. It is worth noting that the need for such functions does not arise often, but in case it does appear, it is better to have a reliable and proven program, such as Driver Sweeper, on hand.

Do you have any questions? - We will answer them for FREE

Hello, friends. Today you will know how to uninstall the driver from his long-suffering computer. We will completely remove only unnecessary, unnecessary drivers. This may be necessary if you got rid of some equipment or are going to install the most new version"firewood" clean.

The fact is that there are many programs that clean the computer, and we have already considered some of them in detail (such as CCleaner , FreeSpacer...). They are great workers and get the job done, but they are not designed to remove drivers. They just don't have that feature.

You changed the video card or something, installed new drivers from the disk, but what about the old ones? But these old, superfluous, unused drivers lie on the couch in the depths of the system, smoke your cigarettes, drink tea with your own cookies and, scoundrels, feel completely safe.

So not only do they lie dead weight, but also steal computer resources. After all, when you connect any equipment, a search takes place in the entire database of drivers, indiscriminately whether it is old or young. The whole service is activated, the registry is looked through ...

So let's visit these radishes with a free, safe program. Driver Sweeper. It is designed for this noble purpose.

Learn how to uninstall the driver - in detail, thoroughly, step by step and in pictures ...

First, let's define what a driver is. In a nutshell, this is a mini-program that helps the system to interact, control equipment, be it a mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer or video card.

Drivers are desirable, which is what the system does by default, thereby speeding up and making life easier for itself and users. But with this update, automatic or manual, non-working drivers are not always removed by the system. Here we will deal with them.

How to remove the driver - download Driver Sweeper

Honestly, I confess to you that I was worried when launching the program for the first time, and suddenly the driver will be deleted incorrectly or crookedly and I will not be able to connect to the printer later, for example, or the sound will disappear. But my worries were in vain. Driver Sweeper delicately threw out the old and superfluous drivers indicated to him by me, without touching the actual and involved ones.

Tested on very rarely used equipment. I connected the scanner, which has been idle for a year, mice from my other computers, a monitor ... everything flies! The beauty! True, I forgot to detect how much space will be freed up on the hard drive, but that's not the point. Not very much, because the driver is a mini-program. The main thing is to get rid of the ballast.

And yet, you will use the program at your own peril and risk!(read the comments on this article). Some more antiviruses are excited by Driver Sweeper, but I checked it personally - so far everything is in order with the computer and the system.

Let's start installing and cleaning...

Now, if you haven’t checked the box, by creating a shortcut on the desktop, go to the Start menu, find our program and run it ...

We are met by a problem - the program is in English. With a flick of the wrist, we switch the interface to the native and powerful, Russian language ...

...don't forget to click below...

Here it is, the reward for the murdered several thousand nerve cells and burned kilocalories in three clicks.

Now you can customize the program a little for yourself. Even appearance change by looking in "Miscellaneous" and "Theme"...

Now, finally, we press "Analysis and cleaning" ...

Before us is a list of the main manufacturers of equipment. Check the boxes next to the manufacturer whose driver you want to completely remove. By the way, I was very surprised when Driver Sweeper found and removed the drivers for Nvidia video cards with my integrated Intel. Where they came from - I have no idea.

Now "Analysis" on the right, below, and then "Cleaning" ...