How to delete old device drivers in Windows 10

[mikeynavy1976]

What is the easiest way to uninstall older versions of drivers for a device. I don't want to delete the device...just previous versions of drivers that were used but remain after upgrades. The only way I've found to do it is to choose "update drivers" and then select drivers on computer, select an older driver and install, and then uninstall and check the "delete software" box. There's got to be an easier way.

 

[aldan]

really hard to say with the info given.some devices automatically delete the old driver on update.some have tools to delete the old driver.what devices are we talking about here?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Generally, depending on the device, remove driver using Device Manager (right-click >> uninstall) though in a few cases some may be listed in "All Programs" in the start menu (eg Uninstall Canon xxxxx)

Having said that, I just realised you use Windows 10, whereas as I use Windows 7. May be different.

 

[gardenman]

No clue if this will help or not, but I guess it's worth a shot.

Disk Cleanup / Clean up system files / Device drivers packages

 

[mikeynavy1976]

To answer several questions that you've asked in trying to assist:

1) Aldan...Example driver in question is Intel RST RAID controller. I have also had the issue when updating Wi-fi adapters. I don't use RST or PROSET software so I install the drivers directly from device manager...pointing Windows to the folder with the infs. Works fine except you end up with previous versions adding up.

2) For Mr. Corcoran...your method is exactly how I'm uninstalling them now. In order to do that, you need to load the old driver, then uninstall it, and then let Windows reinstall driver to restore device. It "works" but my concern is that at some point it won't...and it's a bit tedious. Once you have a working driver there should be an easy way to get access to the list of previous drivers and delete them...with the understanding that you won't be able to roll back to a previous version if necessary.

3) Gardenman...I tried your method as well...didn't do anything. In Disk Cleanup the device drivers packages options was already showing as empty (0MB). I ran it anyways but it didn't do anything.

 

[macmoko]

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730875(v=ws.11).aspx

Divers are on C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore

This is not an easy way but I think is what you are looking for.

Regards

 

[mikeynavy1976]

Well...I posted this a while ago. For those that it applies to...I found this app that makes it very easy to manage all of the driver packages. DriverStoreExplorer. There's a GITHUB website for download.