Question Can I uninstall all my drivers for a clean driver Installation ?

ink123

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Jun 29, 2019
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Hi, yesterday I reset my pc and removed all of my files in the drive. However, I noticed that all of the drivers were pre-installed after the reset. For example, Nvidia Ready Driver 527 version came up pre-installed after the reset but the newest version of the driver is 528.02. It can be said that Windows didn't install the newest drivers. How can I uninstall all of my drivers like graphics, chipset, etc., and install the newest versions of them ?
 

ubuysa

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Jul 29, 2016
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A Windows Reset is NOT a clean install. All it does is refresh the Windows components, the existing drivers are re-used - which is why Windows Reset isn't worth doing.

You can't 'uninstall' your existing drivers (except for graphics drivers where DDU will remove them), typically installing an updated version of a driver will remove the existing version - though sometimes you may have to click a 'perform a clean install' checkbox to completely replace the existing driver, so pay attention to the driver installer.

The only way to start again from scratch, if that's what you want to do, is to reinstall WIndows from bootable media (made by the media creation tool) and delete all existing UEFI partitions during the install.
 

ink123

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Jun 29, 2019
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A Windows Reset is NOT a clean install. All it does is refresh the Windows components, the existing drivers are re-used - which is why Windows Reset isn't worth doing.

You can't 'uninstall' your existing drivers (except for graphics drivers where DDU will remove them), typically installing an updated version of a driver will remove the existing version - though sometimes you may have to click a 'perform a clean install' checkbox to completely replace the existing driver, so pay attention to the driver installer.

The only way to start again from scratch, if that's what you want to do, is to reinstall WIndows from bootable media (made by the media creation tool) and delete all existing UEFI partitions during the install.


Yup installing the newest driver will automatically remove the old one.

Windows does keep the installers for the drivers though and those can add up to a decent amount of space over time so you can use this program to clean up your driver storage from old versions, if you try to delete something that the system still uses it will give you a warning.
https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer/releases

Since you guys said an updated version of a driver will remove the existing version, I've updated my drivers by using Iobit driver booster
 

ink123

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Jun 29, 2019
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So, the best thing to do, is download and install drivers yourself. There is no reason nor need for stand alone programs to do this.
[/QUOT
Driver boosters...automatic driver updaters...it's so easy to install drivers yourself...why do people use those ridiculous programs?

Since MSI support page has old versions of drivers, I have resorted to use a third party software to update my drivers. So far, I don't see any issue about drivers that Iobit installed.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Since MSI support page has old versions of drivers, I have resorted to use a third party software to update my drivers. So far, I don't see any issue about drivers that Iobit installed.
You get the drivers from the specific manufacturer.
motherboard, GPU, etc.

Not necessarily Microsoft.

AS far as not having any issues with iobit?
Contrast that to the many people we see here where that has screwed up their system.

Good luck.
 

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