How do you manually remove a driver which was left behind by a program?


M

maffle

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Hello,

what is the proper way to remove a driver from Windows 11, which was not properly removed/unregistered by a program or uninstaller routine? I see with Autoruns that there are a few drivers which were not removed even the program they came from are uninstalled. You can deselect them with Autoruns is that enough? I think that somehow disables them, is that true, but theyre still left behind.
 

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If a device in device manager is associated with the driver, right click on the device, select uninstall device, check the box to remove the driver for the device.

You can also show nonpresent devices and delete them.
www.thewindowsclub.com

How to show Hidden Devices in Device Manager of Windows 11/10

Enable Hidden Non-present Devices in Device Manager of Windows 11/10 using Command Prompt. View old, unused, previous, hidden devices.
www.thewindowsclub.com www.thewindowsclub.com
Once you enter the command to show non present devices, open Device Manager.
Click View tab and select Show hidden devices. Expand the branches in the device tree & look for the faded icons. These indicate unused device drivers.
Right-click on one and select Uninstall.


As a last resort, Also Driver Store Explorer should do it. Be very careful using it.
github.com

GitHub - lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer: Driver Store Explorer

Driver Store Explorer. Contribute to lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 

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glasskuter said:
If a device in device manager is associated with the driver, right click on the device, select uninstall device, check the box to remove the driver for the device.
Click to expand...
I didnt ask about physical devices / hardware drivers but software drivers. Software drivers applications use wont show under device manager.
 

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What information do you have on the software and driver names?

What's happening that you found incomplete removal or performance problems?
 

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The drivers are kernel IO drivers by Asrock, which were installed together with the RGB Tool by Asrock ASRock Polychrome RGB. After removing the buggy RGB Software I noticed the drivers were left behind and not removed by the uninstall routine. I found out that Asrock kernel IO drivers had security exploits in the past and also gave bluescreens and other issues so I want them removed.

github.com

GitHub - reigenatk/vuln-driver: Exploiting the AsrDrv104 driver

Exploiting the AsrDrv104 driver. Contribute to reigenatk/vuln-driver development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

voIoz07.png

There is also this driver called inpoutx64 which seems to be hooked into the system by running Zentimings, even I never installed it but ran it as portable, it hooked and installed a permanent driver into the system which I also found reports of bluescreens about.

I disabled them with Autoruns so far, not sure if that is the right thing to do though, I want them gone. Does deselecting them in Autoruns even disable them?
 

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Since that driver is in a temp folder I would think you could just delete it.
You can also reinstall HWInfo, then uninstall it with Revo Installer Free, making sure to check any leftover remnants the uninstaller finds and delete them.
Revo has a portable version that works just fine. Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download
 

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    System 3 is non compliant Dell 9020 i7-4770/24gb ram Win11 PRO 26200.8457

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maffle said:
Does deselecting them in Autoruns even disable them?
Click to expand...



You can right click a driver in Autoruns, and delete it.
You might want to make a backup, before you start deleting drivers.



More info...

inpoutx64.sys

Does anybody know what the inpoutx64.sys driver is or where it comes from? There's appears to be new for me since looking at Autoruns today.
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com


I don't have any 3rd party keyboard or mouse drivers.
I have inpoutx64.sys also.

I do have an old joystick I use.
A while back I played around with a program called JoyToKey...which had to do with remapping my joystick keys.
Maybe that's where I got it.

I'll make a fresh backup tomorrow, and remove inpoutx64.sys ...and see what happens.
I'll post the results in here, tomorrow afternoon. :-)



Highresolution Enterprises does have a forum...

Highrez - Index page

forums.highrez.co.uk forums.highrez.co.uk
 
Last edited:

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1) Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link into this thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive

www.elevenforum.com

BSOD - Posting Instructions

BSOD - Posting Instructions This will show you how to help provide needed information about your system and dump files. It will not contain any personal or sensitive information about you or your data. To get better help with your Windows BSOD issue, please read these instructions and follow...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com


2) Read this tutorial on Windows Driver Verifier:

www.tenforums.com

Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10

How to Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10
www.tenforums.com www.tenforums.com


3) Make a new restore point:

www.elevenforum.com

Create System Restore Point in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to manually create a restore point in Windows 11. Turning on system protection for a drive allows System Restore to include the drive when restore points are created so you can undo undesired system changes by reverting to a previous point in time. System...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com
 

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Product : 190A Version : KBC Version 94.56
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Model Hitachi HTS727575A9E364
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@maffle

I removed the driver and nothing seems to be affected.

When I first tried to just delete the driver... I got a "this driver is in use by a program".
So... I disabled it in Autoruns, then rebooted. THEN I could delete the driver.

Currently, I have left the driver installed. Maybe someone who also has this driver, could find which program is using it.

It wasn't... my joystick, EVGA Precision, AIDA64 Extreme, Bitdefender, etc.
With the driver removed... Device Manager showed no warnings.

This is what AIDA64 says about it...
Image1.png
 

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    Symantec (Norton)
    Other Info
    Still assembled, still runs. Haven't turned it on for 15 years?
You can simply use the service controller commands.

Rich (BB code): 
sc stop <service name>
sc config <service name> start= disabled
sc delete <service name>

You will only want to disable the service if you aren't able to stop it. You will need to reboot the machine for the start type changes to take effect. After the service has been successfully deleted, then you should be able to safely delete the associated .inf and .sys files manually.
 

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Inpoutx64 is apparently an open source kernal driver installed by such software as OpenRGB to allow access to serial, parallel and other I/O ports.
There are various guides online as to how to completely remove OpenRGB, so it seems like one of those installations that might leave orphans behind such as this driver.
Removing the software that uses it first then using Autoruns or similar to disable it, reboot then delete it should work.
Depending on which software you have installed this might break other installations that expect to find this driver on the system.
 

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Windows 11 Pro 22H2, build: 22621.521
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Scan 3XS Custom 1700
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Intel i7-12700K 3.6GHz Base (5.0GHz Turbo)
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Asus ProArt Creator B660 D4
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Corsair Hydro H150i RGB Pro XT 360mm Liquid Cooler, 3 x 120mm fans, 1x Exhaust
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