DriverStoreExplorer Shows Many Entries. How to Remove Non-essential Drivers?

Steve C · Apr 11, 2024

My HP 450 G6 Probook laptop shows far more drivers listed in DriverStoreExplorer (DSE) than my other Windows 11 PCs especially for Realtek sound drivers and the cameras (see enclosed list). How to delete the excess drivers? Selecting old drivers in DSE does not highlight these drivers and running Diskclean does not remove them. Is there a DISM command or similar to prune the driver store?

Try3 · Apr 11, 2024

Steve,

Here is a guide to using the utility. I hope it helps you.
Driver Store Explorer ditty - hsehestedt #30 - ElevenForum

All the best,
Denis

FreeBooter · Apr 11, 2024

There is a dism command to remove third-party drives at below video, i'm using it to uninstall drivers.

In this video, i will show you how to uninstall offline windows operating system drivers with Dism command.

idgat · Apr 11, 2024

Control Panel > Device Manager > View menu > Show Hidden Devices

In each category, unnecessary drivers are greyed out (faint). Right click > Uninstall, including any offer to uninstall driver software

antspants · Apr 11, 2024

I have used this, Steve, it worked last time I used it.

hsehestedt said:
My personal favorite way to do this is by using an application called "Driver Store Explorer" also known as RAPR.

It's a free app that you can download here:

GitHub - lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer: Driver Store Explorer [RAPR]

Driver Store Explorer [RAPR]. Contribute to lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Some usage tips:

NOTE: This procedure will NOT delete drivers that are in use on your system. It will only delete old versions of drivers and drivers not used by your system.

• After extracting the ZIP file contents to a folder, run RAPR.EXE
• Click any driver in the main window, press CTRL-A to select all drivers, and finally click inside any one of the check boxes. You should see all drivers become checked.
• To the right of the main window, make sure that “Force Deletion” is NOT checked, and then click the “Delete Driver” button.
• You will be asked if you are sure. Click on “OK”.
• After a little while you should get an error saying that some drivers could not be removed from the driver store. This is fine – this is simply a notification that indicates that any of the drivers that are in use were not deleted.
• Click “OK”.
• Close the program.

FreeBooter · Apr 11, 2024

This is the way to remove a specific driver package from the image. Multiple driver packages can also be removed on one command line.

Code:

Dism /Online /Remove-Driver /Driver:OEM1.inf /Driver:OEM2.inf

https://help.nicelabel.com/hc/en-001/articles/4413996133009-Removing-drivers-from-Windows-driver-store

Steve C · Apr 11, 2024

antspants said:
I have used this, Steve, it worked last time I used it.

Thanks. I use RAPR which is how I posted the driver list above. It doesn't find all drivers e.g. I was able to delete most of the camera drivers.

I don't understand why my laptop driver list is about 3 times longer than my main desktop PC. For instance why are there so many drivers under System Components related to CPU types I don't have in the laptop's RAPR listing but not for my desktop PC. RAPR lists these a boot critical for some reason.

antspants · Apr 11, 2024

Steve C said:
Thanks. I use RAPR which is how I posted the driver list above. It doesn't find all drivers e.g. I was able to delete most of the camera drivers.

I don't understand why my laptop driver list is about 3 times longer than my main desktop PC. For instance why are there so many drivers under System Components related to CPU types I don't have in the laptop's RAPR listing but not for my desktop PC. RAPR lists these a boot critical for some reason.

Reads like bloatware.

FreeBooter · Apr 11, 2024

Steve C said:
Thanks. I use RAPR which is how I posted the driver list above. It doesn't find all drivers e.g. I was able to delete most of the camera drivers.

I don't understand why my laptop driver list is about 3 times longer than my main desktop PC. For instance why are there so many drivers under System Components related to CPU types I don't have in the laptop's RAPR listing but not for my desktop PC. RAPR lists these a boot critical for some reason.

The drivers are built-in device drivers for installing them on base on connected devices or present or connected PC components when you remove them you may have problem if you don't have driver for the devices you connect.

steveg · Apr 11, 2024

FreeBooter said:
The drivers are built-in device drivers for installing them on base on connected devices or present or connected PC components when you remove them you may have problem if you don't have driver for the devices you connect.

Even if you don't need them now you may in the future. With size of disk drives these days I don't think they take up that much space.

antspants · Apr 11, 2024

If a driver is removed and it was still needed I’d suspect Windows would either do something about it or prompt the user to somehow, either by self destructing or Windows/Optional Updates?

steveg · Apr 11, 2024

antspants said:
If a driver is removed and it was still needed I’d suspect Windows would either do something about it or prompt the user to somehow, either by self destructing or Windows/Optional Updates?

True, but I'm always in a rush it seems and like things to work as soon as I plug them in.

Guess I need to look and see exactly how much space is being used.

abactuon · Apr 11, 2024

hsehestedt · Apr 11, 2024

@abactuon,

I notice from your screenshot that you had "Force Deletion" selected in Driver Store Explorer. There are obviously reasons for doing this, but for anyone new to Driver Store Explorer, here is how I recommend using it:

1) Export all your drivers "just in case". To do so, run these two commands from an elevated command prompt:

MD C:\Drivers_Backup
pnputil /export-driver * C:\Drivers_Backup

You now have a backup of all drivers just in case you accidentally delete anything critical.

2) Run Driver Store Explorer.

3) Click on "Select Old Driver(s), then click on "Delete Driver(s)".

That is all.

This should be a safe operation. You should normally only need to force deletion for a driver that the Windows Driver Store still sees as being used by the system. Choosing to delete old drivers should normally not select anything that is in use.

zbook · Apr 11, 2024

The V2 log collector results has two text reports for drivers:

driver-table

driver-versions

One or more of these links may be useful:

How Devices and Driver Packages are Uninstalled - Windows drivers

How Devices and Driver Packages are Uninstalled

learn.microsoft.com

Using Device Manager to Uninstall Devices and Driver Packages - Windows drivers

Using Device Manager to Uninstall Devices and Driver Packages

learn.microsoft.com

Using SetupAPI to Uninstall Devices and Driver Packages - Windows drivers

Using SetupAPI to Uninstall Devices and Driver Packages

learn.microsoft.com

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

How to Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to back up and restore all 3rd party device drivers on your Windows 10 and Windows 11 PC. If you clean install Windows, you will need to install drivers for each device in the system. Some of these device drivers may no longer be available from the manufacturer...

www.elevenforum.com