Now may be a good time to do some drivers cleaning job before preparing for a possible 26H2 release this Fall.

dalchina · 2026-07-23T08:47:55-0400

Noting the different sizes, it's possible these relate to different devices. Starter for 10:

neldog · 2026-07-23T08:58:20-0400

I can't understand this at all - the exact same driver name, (listed 10 times) with the same install date but different sizes. The system seems fine with it this way so I guess I will just move on. No way I would feel safe removing nine and leaving just the one because there is no way I know which one the system is using.

dalchina · 2026-07-23T09:27:41-0400

I guess you didn't read my post, then.
So here's another.

Thank you.

neldog · 2026-07-23T11:35:40-0400

dalchina said:
I guess you didn't read my post, then.
So here's another.

Thank you.

View attachment 177377

Thank you. Sorry, please forgive me, I was called away and I did not see your post - Rancho Seldom Siesta strikes again.

Below is what I found on Goggle AI which is what you last posted. So, it appears that the program; "Driver Store Explorer" was written well enough to know it should not mark those drivers for deletion, which is good to know - good program.

There is more to the explanation than I added but one can look it up for themselves if they need the full read. Below I thought is enough for my post.

You should not delete these files; they are actually distinct, necessary files that work together to run your Bluetooth hardware.

This is common with Intel Bluetooth drivers in Driver Store Explorer. You are seeing 10 listings because Intel packages their modern drivers under a "componentized" layout called DCH (Declarative, Componentized, Hardware Support Apps).

Why the Same Version Appears 10 Times:

While Driver Store Explorer shows the same descriptive name and version number across all 10 rows, look closely at the INF File column (e.g., ibtusb.inf, intelbt.inf, ibtsva.inf). Each row represents a completely different steering file:

The Core Driver: One file handles the actual Bluetooth radio hardware transceiver.

The Audio Profile Extensions: Separate files handle hands-free audio, high-quality A2DP streaming, and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) profiles.

The Software Components: Extra files manage side-car services, Intel software app integration, or background firmware telemetry

gunrunnerjohn · 2026-07-23T11:47:40-0400

I just fired up Driver Store Explorer, and told it to select old drivers.

I guess I just run a tidy WIndows ship!

kelper · 2026-07-23T12:51:56-0400

Why bother just to save a megabyte or two? You lose the ability to roll back if a driver causes problems.

garlin · 2026-07-23T13:03:06-0400

I find it OK to remove an older driver if it's been about a 6-12 months since the driver was last replaced.

Some drivers like the NVIDIA ones take a lot more space because the driver instance includes large DLL's.

HeavyHemi · 2026-07-23T13:22:08-0400

Surprised that even though this system is a Win 10 upgrade, the only thing of import it found was the previous Nvidia .74 driver which used up about 2.6GB of disk space. The hotfix .82 is running fine.

suatcini54 · 2026-07-23T13:23:54-0400

neldog said:
I like this program, but I don't understand this Intel Bluetooth driver, where it shows an old driver, but also 10 drivers with the same version number and install date and the size of the same drivers varies widely.

I wonder what's going on there. Anyone have any ideas what is going on with this?

View attachment 177366

In such a situation I would back up all the drivers before doing any cleaning job, using this command in command prompt console with admin rights:

dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\DRIVERS

where E:\DRIVERS is the folder you would like to keep backup copy of all the drivers installed including the duplicate drivers, old drivers, redundant drivers, whatever.

Now you have a good backup of the drivers. You can now do the cleaning of the drivers and restart Windows. After restarting, you may see exclamation marks besides some devices in Device Manager. In this case, you choose that device and update its drivers, pointing to the backup drivers folder E:\DRIVERS.

Windows finds the correct driver file for that device and installs it. If there are others you repeat the procedure.After Device Manager does not have any unknown device, then you take another backup of the drivers.

You keep this drivers backup folder for later use if need arises.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I used

: drive letter and forum script placed an emoji in place of D: I changed D: to E:

neldog · 2026-07-23T13:39:51-0400

kelper said:
Why bother just to save a megabyte or two? You lose the ability to roll back if a driver causes problems.

I thought about that too, and that is a good point. But the ones flagged here today are so old that I have been using the new version for some time now, so I see them as safe to delete. I don't think I would delete an old version that its replacement was anywhere close to new and the software will let you uncheck any driver you want to keep for that reason if you want to play it safe.

On some of the drivers, there were two or three older versions that the software did not flag for deletion, and I figured those were left off the deletion list just for the reason you mentioned, and I am leaving them for now.

neldog · 2026-07-23T13:43:58-0400

suatcini54 said:
In such a situation I would back up all the drivers before doing any cleaning job, using this command in command prompt console with admin rights:

dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\DRIVERS

where E:\DRIVERS is the folder you would like to keep backup copy of all the drivers installed including the duplicate drivers, old drivers, redundant drivers, whatever.

Now you have a good backup of the drivers. You can now do the cleaning of the drivers and restart Windows. After restarting, you may see exclamation marks besides some devices in Device Manager. In this case, you choose that device and update its drivers, pointing to the backup drivers folder E:\DRIVERS.

Windows finds the correct driver file for that device and installs it. If there are others you repeat the procedure.After Device Manager does not have any unknown device, then you take another backup of the drivers.

You keep this drivers backup folder for later use if need arises.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I used : drive letter and forum script placed an emoji in place of D: I changed D: to E:

Well, none of those were selected for deletion by the software and after some education, now I know why, and those were not deleted. I would have had to manually select those and I did not.

PerpetualCycle · 2026-07-23T14:16:56-0400

suatcini54 said:
Thanks. That’s my inability to interpret your screenshot. But if you chose select old drivers, why was old synpd.inf file not selected because there is an old driver and there is a new driver with the same name synpd.inf ? Could that be, you wanted to keep that old driver ?

View attachment 177356

It will not automatically select drivers that are critical for boot (there is an option to include them though).

PerpetualCycle · 2026-07-23T14:19:21-0400

neldog said:
I like this program, but I don't understand this Intel Bluetooth driver, where it shows an old driver, but also 10 drivers with the same version number and install date and the size of the same drivers varies widely.

I wonder what's going on there. Anyone have any ideas what is going on with this?

View attachment 177366

I believe it is just dumping similar devices. I have deleted them before with no impact. Make sure you have the program export all drivers before doing that or similar.

PerpetualCycle · 2026-07-23T14:22:23-0400

I post updates to RAPR to a thread in these forum:

Driver Store Explorer (RAPR)

DriverStore Explorer v1.0.26 Latest lostindark Release Highlights This is a landmark release — DriverStore Explorer v1.0! Beyond the major version milestone, this release introduces in-place self-update functionality and WinGet integration. What's New In-place self-update —...

www.elevenforum.com

Shambles Bank · 2026-07-23T15:13:48-0400

kelper said:
Why bother just to save a megabyte or two? You lose the ability to roll back if a driver causes problems.

Well, after running the program on my desktop and it finding 40 duplicate drivers taking up almost 600mb, I then ran it on my MSI laptop. The result of that, was 117 duplicate drivers that amounted to 2.2Gb. I literally cannot understand why there were so many duplicates, but there it is.

neldog said:
I can't understand this at all - the exact same driver name, (listed 10 times) with the same install date but different sizes. The system seems fine with it this way so I guess I will just move on. No way I would feel safe removing nine and leaving just the one because there is no way I know which one the system is using.

View attachment 177371

I had exactly the same issue on my laptop. I solved it by uninstalling Intel Bluetooth from my installed Programs list. Every single Intel Bluetooth driver subsequently disappeared from that list. I still have Bluetooth as I am now using my TP-Link UB500 dongle.

hsehestedt · 2026-07-23T15:47:19-0400

This may seem odd, because I am the guy who hates to use a third-party app for anything that can be done in the OS without the app, but this is an exception. I'm a HUGE fan of DriverStoreExplorer. Some tips:

You can select old versions of drivers in the GUI and delete, but you can also select every single driver and then choose the option to remove them (without selecting the option to force deletion) and then it will delete only drivers not used by any devices and it will throw an error on the remaining drivers.

IMPORTANT: I have never had a problem doing the above and I've done this on many machines. If you want to play it safe, use RAPR to export all drivers temporarily, then delete the unused drivers. Just in case it pulled something important, you can reload it from the export you made first.

I maintain a set of exported drivers for every single system. That way, when I do a clean unattended install, I can include all the drivers so that when Windows installation is done, all my drivers are already loaded.

hsehestedt · 2026-07-23T15:53:45-0400

suatcini54 said:
The below command cleans the previous non-used drivers when run in a Command Prompt console with admin privileges:

rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /DRIVERS /MAXCLEAN

Love this tip. Because I have been using DriverStoreExplorer so long, I didn't even know you could do this natively but admittedly, I never really even looked for a way to do it. I'll have to experiment to see what this does compared with DriverStoreExplorer.

Thanks for sharing this.

neldog · 2026-07-23T16:02:26-0400

hsehestedt said:
This may seem odd, because I am the guy who hates to use a third-party app for anything that can be done in the OS without the app, but this is an exception. I'm a HUGE fan of DriverStoreExplorer. Some tips:

You can select old versions of drivers in the GUI and delete, but you can also select every single driver and then choose the option to remove them (without selecting the option to force deletion) and then it will delete only drivers not used by any devices and it will throw an error on the remaining drivers.

This is an interesting approach - I like it.

PerpetualCycle · 2026-07-23T16:54:26-0400

hsehestedt said:
Love this tip. Because I have been using DriverStoreExplorer so long, I didn't even know you could do this natively but admittedly, I never really even looked for a way to do it. I'll have to experiment to see what this does compared with DriverStoreExplorer.

Thanks for sharing this.

There is also a /NOREMOVE switch that just does the evaluation and doesn't remove anything. I haven't tried any of this though. GHere is the full set of options (but this may be dated):

Old devices and driver cleanup (one command) - Windows 10 Help Forums

Found this little gem of a command today. Wanted to share it with you. Nice to schedule this as a task running once a month? Rundll32.exe c:\\windows\\system32\\pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /DEVICES /DRIVERS /FILES [/MAXCLEAN] For pnpclean output see c:\\

www.tenforums.com

PerpetualCycle · 2026-07-23T17:20:15-0400

hsehestedt said:
Love this tip. Because I have been using DriverStoreExplorer so long, I didn't even know you could do this natively but admittedly, I never really even looked for a way to do it. I'll have to experiment to see what this does compared with DriverStoreExplorer.

Thanks for sharing this.

There is also a /NOREMOVE switch that just does the evaluation and doesn't remove anything. I haven't tried any of this though. GHere is the full set of options (but this may be dated)

hsehestedt said:
Love this tip. Because I have been using DriverStoreExplorer so long, I didn't even know you could do this natively but admittedly, I never really even looked for a way to do it. I'll have to experiment to see what this does compared with DriverStoreExplorer.

Thanks for sharing this.

Working on powershell script to do the same (not using pnp but dism get-windowsdriver). Will post here when done. Should be more flexible).

Now may be a good time to do some drivers cleaning job before preparing for a possible 26H2 release this Fall.

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