Solved Driverstore explorer, safe to delete old drivers?

XxXxX · Dec 17, 2024

just to add within DSE you can do a full driver backup as well before deleting any old drivers.
i have use DSE many times to backup and then delete old drivers without problem.

best of luck, Steve ..

glasskuter · Dec 17, 2024

andrew129260 said:
Built a new pc recently but cloned it from my gaming laptop.

andrew129260 said:
Trying to remove all of that stuff that may be lurking left over..

I'm an opiniated old woman and feel obligated to jump in here. You won't like my opinion but I'm giving it anyway.

IMO you've created a disaster waiting to happen. I totally agree with @Ghot . I would never clone a laptop to a PC (IN fact I don't clone at all from one system to another) Despite all the work involved a clean install is the only way to go. I know, I just did one. I grumbled and cussed for 3 days, but now that it's over I don't regret it since I know what I've got is as clean and organized as it can be. I know what I've started with going forward.

Despite you thinking that you are, you will never get rid of all the "lurking stuff". Whether that lurking stuff affects performance or not, it's still there. Why anyone would build a brand new system and shortcut having a clean system by cloning such a dissimilar system full of junk files and registry entries is just beyond me.. Just makes no sense. A new system should be just that...new with a clean OS.

But it's your system so of course you're free to do what you want with it. Just be prepared for stuff to jump up and bite you where the sun don't shine.

hdmi · Dec 17, 2024

RAPR is fairly safe. The worst that could happen IME is that it misinterprets the version number of a driver as being outdated when factually it is not, and suggests to delete it by ticking its checkbox for you, which you could always decide to untick before you proceed with letting it delete old drivers (or just proceed with the deletion, as you should still be able to install the latest version of those specific drivers again as needed). Windows 11 version 24H2 runs more stable if it's dirty. Cleaning sickness makes it poop on itself.

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

There is no such a thing as old device drivers they are use when needed.

cereberus · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
There is no such a thing as old device drivers they are use when needed.

Huh?

Many drivers get updated superseding old versions!!!

Intel Graphics drivers are a classix example.

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

So you come a cross such an update.

idgat · Dec 17, 2024

andrew129260 said:
The amount of time it would take to clean it up is way less than the time it would take me to reinstall everything, retweak everything....reactivate all my software etc and then make a new image......

You will never completely "clean it up" manually

cereberus · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
So you come a cross such an update.

?

antspants · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
So you come a cross such an update.

Windows related drivers get updated all the time. Windows is renowned for sometimes failing to remove old drivers when new ones are applied. Maybe you’re confusing the issue because I would expect that you know that, Freebooter?

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

Driver names are same and overwritten with new ones, so there should be no old driver if driver for Intel Graphics is named intl.sys it will be same when you upgrade this driver so new one deletes this driver you tell me where is the old driver gone.

A Guy · Dec 17, 2024

I use RAPR and just delete duplicates. The drivers with the same exact name showing a superseded version number/date. You just have to confirm the name is precisely the same. Otherwise I don't delete by age. You might have a driver date of 2006 on a Windows supplied driver for instance, but it is the current version

A Guy

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

A Guy said:
I use RAPR and just delete duplicates. The drivers with the same exact name showing a superseded version number/date. You just have to confirm the name is precisely the same. Otherwise I don't delete by age. You might have a driver date of 2006 on a Windows supplied driver for instance, but it is the current version

View attachment 119607

A Guy

Strange how same files can be on same directory which is not possible.

cereberus · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
Strange how same files can be on same directory which is not possible.

Not at all - the driver names you are seeing are multiple versions in DIFFERENT unique files.

cereberus · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
Driver names are same and overwritten with new ones, so there should be no old driver if driver for Intel Graphics is named intl.sys it will be same when you upgrade this driver so new one deletes this driver you tell me where is the old driver gone.

You do not understand how drivers are stored in Windows. Say you needed a driver called intelg.inf.

It is stored in a .inf say Intelg.infABC123 (this is basically a cabinet folder)

When you update a driver it will be in a new folder e.g. Intel.infDEF456

So Intelg.inf is in two separate cabinets.

How else could you rewind to an earlier version if there were not multiple versions?

Of course if you delete old driver versions, you cannot rewind.

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

A setup information (INF) file is a text file in a driver package that contains all of the information that device installation components use to install a driver package on a device. Windows uses INF files to install the following components for a device: One or more drivers that support the device.

The .inf is not a driver and you cannot store same named files on same directory, try you may learn something.

andrew129260 · Dec 17, 2024

glasskuter said:
I'm an opiniated old woman and feel obligated to jump in here. You won't like my opinion but I'm giving it anyway.

IMO you've created a disaster waiting to happen. I totally agree with @Ghot . I would never clone a laptop to a PC (IN fact I don't clone at all from one system to another) Despite all the work involved a clean install is the only way to go. I know, I just did one. I grumbled and cussed for 3 days, but now that it's over I don't regret it since I know what I've got is as clean and organized as it can be. I know what I've started with going forward.

Despite you thinking that you are, you will never get rid of all the "lurking stuff". Whether that lurking stuff affects performance or not, it's still there. Why anyone would build a brand new system and shortcut having a clean system by cloning such a dissimilar system full of junk files and registry entries is just beyond me.. Just makes no sense. A new system should be just that...new with a clean OS.

But it's your system so of course you're free to do what you want with it. Just be prepared for stuff to jump up and bite you where the sun don't shine.

Believe me, I used to feel the same way. I started doing it about 4 years ago. The thing is, I haven't had any issues doing that at all. I have quite a few computers I have done that with over the years without incident. It doesn't seem like a good idea but it works. When windows boots the first time on that new machine, it tells me it is getting all the devices ready and then - just works fine. My performance is noticeably faster in everything, so I don't think I am leaving performance on the table. I have run benchmarks and they align with what I should be getting with my hardware.

I don't usually install software and remove it later, as I always test in a virtual machine or windows sandbox before committing to putting it in my system. If I do uninstall something, I usually use the pro version of revo uninstaller. Only exception is games really.

Trust me, as soon as I run into a major problem I will do a clean install :)

I respect your words.

XxXxX said:
just to add within DSE you can do a full driver backup as well before deleting any old drivers.
i have use DSE many times to backup and then delete old drivers without problem.

best of luck, Steve ..

thanks I backed up the drivers already via shawn tutorial.

garlin said:
I've never had a system failure from using DriverStore Explorer to remove old or unused drivers. It's relatively conservative, and tries not to remove any driver file that's in active use (kernel loaded). If you have System Restore enabled, that's usually enough to roll back to the previous state since you're only removing driver files and updating the registry.

thanks I figured. The people that have issues booting are also probably on intel, where on most systems you need to deal with raid drivers and the like. Amd boards never have that crap enabled by default.

Appreciate it guys and gals for all the opinions and support.

hdmi · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
and you cannot store same named files on same directory, try you may learn something.

These files have identical names, but are different and are located in different subdirectories of the same directory,
%WinDir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

hdmi said:
These files have identical names, but are different and are located in different subdirectories of the same directory,
%WinDir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

Windows keeps a copy of every driver you install in a place called the Driver Store. It is located in “C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository”

cereberus · Dec 17, 2024

FreeBooter said:
The .inf is not a driver and you cannot store same named files on same directory, try you may learn something.

Fort crying out loufd, it I was giving a simpllfied example of the principle. I did not make it clear about the .inf, .sys etc.

example from Driver store

driver cabinet folder

open up cabinet/folder it contains

Obviously the inf is the info, the sys is the driver.

So if you want the same driver, different version

there might be a separate cabinet/folder with a different 61883.inf and 61883.inf

e.g. 61883.inf_amd64_a123........

So the driverstore can have many versions of a driver in different cabinet/folders.

DSE drills down through the cabinets/folders and lists all the .inf files which point to the drivers it finds.

Subject Closed.

FreeBooter · Dec 17, 2024

Yes, correct yourself and blame it on me.

Solved Driverstore explorer, safe to delete old drivers?

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