Deleting Built in Drivers

maklabouhlel · 5 Dec 2016 at 09:55

Hi, Windows contain many built-in drivers. When you install the latest drivers from the manufacturer and then uninstall them, the built-in drivers are still present and take over. Is it wise to locate and delete the built-in drivers prior to installing the manufacturer drivers to prevent this and also possible conflict?

something daft already!! · 5 Dec 2016 at 09:58

No, as they are only downloaded and used when needed.

maklabouhlel · 5 Dec 2016 at 10:12

Why are the old drivers not overwritten by the new drivers even though they have the same names?

something daft already!! · 6 Dec 2016 at 18:08

They will be a different version number and Windows has the capability to store the previous driver so you can roll back should it be needed.

maklabouhlel · 6 Dec 2016 at 18:13

howiepoohs said:
They will be a different version number and Windows has the capability to store the previous driver so you can roll back should it be needed.

That makes sense. Thanks.

p5ychonaut · 7 Dec 2016 at 19:52

If you really want to delete drivers that aren't in use you can use pnputil.

More info:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/devtest/pnputil

Usage:

-enumerate drivers in the driver store:

pnputil -e

If the list is too long for the command prompt you may pipe the output to a text file:

pnputil -e > C:\somedirectory\somefile.txt

-Driver versions and manufacturers will be displayed along with a file name of the form oem##.inf where ## is a number.

-To delete a driver e.g. oem40.inf (it won't let you if it is in use):

pnputil -d oem40.inf

All of the above can only be run from an elevated command prompt (Run as Administrator).