How to Remove Unused Drivers from Driver Store

When you install or update device drivers in Windows, older driver versions are still stored in the system. Thus, a user can roll back to the previous driver version if the new driver is unstable (a useful opportunity, as in the case of rolling back a Wi-Fi driver). However, Windows does not automatically clean and delete old driver versions, so as the time goes the size of disk space occupied by drivers becomes quite large. In this article, we’ll discuss how to remove old driver versions (duplicates) using the integrated system tools (without any third-part software).

Windows stores all driver files in its driver repository (Driver Store) located in %WINDIR%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository. In my case on my home laptop running Windows 7 (installed almost 8 years ago), FileRepository folder occupies about 11 GB and contains over 5,000 files. It’s a good many! In particular, over 20 Nvidia driver versions are stored here.

• Never delete any files from DriverStore manually.
• Prior to clearing up the Driver Store, it is strongly recommended that you create a system restore point ( Checkpoint-Computer -Description «BeforeDriversDelete» ) or back up your system image.
• After cleaning the storage, you may have to download and install drivers manually if a new device is connected.

How to Find and Delete Old Driver Versions in Windows 7

Let’s see how to find and delete obsolete drivers in Windows 7. (In Windows 8 and Windows 10, easier ways to delete old drivers are used, these are described below).

Get the list of all third-party drivers available in the system and export them to a text file. To do it, run the following command in the command prompt with the administrator privileges:

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

Import this text file into Excel, and delete all odd data in a way that only the table containing the list of drivers in the repository is left. The table should contain the number of the driver in the system (oemXXX.inf), the name of the original INF file, device class, manufacturer, installation date and driver version.

Sort this table by column B (containing the name of the original INF file) and column F (driver installation date). Among the drivers with the same name mark for removal all driver versions except the last one. In my case, you can see that the most part of old drivers are refer to the NVIDIA video adapter.

To delete a driver, you can use pnputil command:

pnputil.exe -d oemxxx.inf

To make it more convenient, we will create in the empty column the commands to remove each driver using the formula: =CONCATENATE(«pnputil.exe -d «;A21)

Copy and run these commands in the command prompt or a BAT file.

pnputil.exe –d oem9.inf
Microsoft PnP Utility
Driver package deleted successfully

Thus, I have deleted about 40 old driver versions and freed about 8 GB of space (mostly due to removing of NVIDIA drivers).

How to Delete Old Drivers in Windows 10/8 Using Disk Cleanup

In Windows 10 / 8.1, there is a more convenient tool to delete earlier driver versions — familiar Disk Cleanup tool (cleanmgr.exe) that also allows to delete deprecated updates.

• Run Disk Cleanup: Win+R ->cleanmgr
• Select the system disk
• Click Clean up system files
• Check Device driver packages in the list

Cleanmgr will delete all old unused driver versions. However, you should understand that the Roll back driver button in Driver Properties tab of Device Manage will become inactive.

6 best driver removal tools to confirm everything is deleted

• Driver uninstaller software tools are practical for removing old, incompatible or unknown device drivers from your Windows PC.
• It’s essential to remove outdated drivers and replace them with newer ones compatible with your system.
• To read more about these system components, visit our dedicated Driver section.
• To learn more about keeping your PC in the best shape, check out our Optimization page.

1. Download DriverFix now for free (secured download)
2. Launch the program and press the Scan icon
3. Wait for the scan to finish and start installing the needed drivers

• DriverFix has been successfuly downloaded by 0 readers this month.

It’s important to remove unwanted drivers from your Windows 10 system because this will save you a massive amount of time and hassle.

A high-quality driver uninstaller is a third-party software program that scans your system for all installed drivers quickly, and it will let you select one or more drivers at once for removal.

After the drivers have been removed, the driver removal tool will scan the system once again making sure to free up valuable space and also making sure that you will not run into problems when you try to install the latest version of that driver later on. Besides, you can fix driver issues by uninstalling old drivers and installing newer versions.

Here the 5 best driver uninstaller tools that you can currently find on the market so check out their sets of features and decide which one is the best option to add to your system.

What are the best driver uninstaller tools?

Revo Uninstaller Pro (recommended)

Topping off our list is a software utility that can be used to remove anything that is on your PC that involves an installation process, including drivers.

The program is called Revo Uninstaller Pro, and it can be used to remove anything, from generic programs, to Windows Apps, browser extensions, drivers, and more, all without leaving a trace that they were ever there.

In the case of drivers, you know how important it is when reinstalling a driver that the previous install needs to be completely gone.

With Revo Uninstaller Pro, you don’t have to worry about residual data and files, since it will all be deleted along with the driver itself, turning your PC into a completely clean slate.

Here are some of the perks of using Revo Uninstaller Pro:

• Removes programs, Windows apps, browser extensions, drivers, and more.
• Offers two kinds of uninstalling processes for you to choose from
• Deletes programs and drivers without leaving a trace
• Comes in both a normal and a portable version
• Can force-uninstall stubborn programs

Revo Uninstaller Pro

Driver Booster 7

Driver Booster 7 is one of the best driver updater tools. In addition to removing old and outdated drivers from our PC, you can use this software solution to find the newest drivers online that are compatible with your devices and operating system.

Here are the key features of Driver Booster:

• Find and remove outdated device drivers from your PC
• Optimize your computer for gaming using Game Boost
• Inspect driver information suc as publisher, date and associated device
• Create driver backups and system restore points as a precaution
• Update drivers at an accelerated rate
• Set your PC to auto-shutdown or restart after the drivers are updated
• Schedule Driver Booster to automatically scan drivers

Driver Fusion

Driver Fusion is a driver uninstaller that provides a complete solution for your system to help you update, monitor, and manage your drivers and devices as well.

Using the health check option, you will be able to analyze your system’s health, and the program can automatically fix all detected issues.

Here are the key features of Driver Fusion:

• Keeps your computer updated by installing the latest drivers via its automatic driver updater, making sure that you will no longer have outdated and missing files
• It also allows you to create a backup for all of your installed drivers at once
• This remove driver software can also prepare your system when you install a new driver or change the hardware on your computer
• The device control feature allows you to backup, download and uninstalls drivers, disable or restart devices and scan for hardware changes
• The device identifier feature lets you troubleshoot and search for information on devices that are not recognized by Windows

Driver Fusion offers you data on every device and driver that you have installed on your computer, and it allows you to detect and prevent problems and keep your PC running at top performance.

Driver Magician

Run a System Scan to discover potential errors

Driver Magician is a driver removal software that will help you uninstall unnecessary drivers from your system effortlessly and this way you will be able to save some valuable time.

This program offers a professional solution for device drivers backup, update, removal and restoration as well. It’s compatible with Windows operating system.

The program works by identifying all the hardware that you have installed on your computer, and it extracts the associated drivers from the hard disk, backing them up to a location that you chose.

Here are the key features of Driver Magician:

• Driver Magician comes with a built-in database of the latest drivers with the ability to go online and receive the driver updates.
• You will be able to back up device drivers of your system in four modes.
• The tool lets you restore device drivers from backup with a simple click.
• You will be able to update device drivers of your PC to improve system performance and stability.
• There’s also the option of Live Update device identifier database and driver update database.
• You will be able to back up more items such as Desktop and My Documents.
• With this tool, you can restore more items from the backup, and you will also get detailed information of the hardware drivers.

Guru3D Driver Sweeper

Guru3D Driver Sweeper is a great remove driver software that will sweep all driver leftovers from your computer. Removing your drivers on a correct way is essential because driver leftovers are able to cause stability-related issues and startup problems.

You can use Guru3D Driver Sweeper if you want to update and remove drivers from the computer.v

Here are the key features of Guru3D Driver Sweeper:

• Guru3D Driver Sweeper can be used in two ways, and both of them will clean all the files.
• You can use the official uninstaller of the drivers, and you can also run this program to select what to clean.
• You will be able to select more drivers at the same time for cleaning.
• The current supported drivers are NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), ATI (Display), Creative (Sound) Realtek (Sound), Ageia (PhysX) and Microsoft (Mouse).
• This software can be used in Normal mode, but for absolute stability, it’s recommended to use the Safe mode.

It’s also recommended to make a backup or a system restore before using this tool.

Device Cleanup Tool

Device Cleanup Tool removes drivers for non-present devices from the Windows, device manager. It’s critical to remove these drivers because each device that was once attached to your system leaves an entry in the Device Manager.

When you are using the Windows Device Manager, you will be able to delete drivers only one by one. But, with Device Cleanup Tool you can delete multiple drivers or all the non-present devices.

Here are the key features of Device Cleanup Tool:

• View a list of all devices and uninstall drivers
• The “last used time” comes from the write time of the device’s registry key
• Using Device Cleanup Tool will save you space, time and effort as well
• There’s also a command line version of Device Cleanup Tool called Device Cleanup Cmd

These are the top five picks for the best driver removal tools and no matter which one you decide to get, you’ll be able to keep your system clean and running smoother.

If you have any other suggestions or questions, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section below.