Solved Restore Older Device Driver From Backup

Hi, I updated our Graphics Driver using the Manufacturer Utility around a week ago and it seems to be working OK - Windows 11 Home 22H2. In Settings/System/Storage/Cleanup Files, the previous driver was shown under Old Device Drivers 1.5GB. I unticked this option and cleaned Temporary Files and the other options and noticed that the 1.5GB shown under Old Device Drivers had disappeared even though I had not selected this. The option to Rollback Driver has also disappeared. I'm not sure if Windows would auto delete these files itself? I have Storage Sense turned off. I keep a backup of drivers on a USB before and after updates using the "Export Drivers" option in CMD. I noticed in Shawn's Tutorial about backing up and restoring drivers that pointing Device Manager to search the driver backup USB to install the previous driver, it was said that the driver would be installed if it was a newer version of what is installed - does that mean that an older driver cannot be installed from a backup? I'd be grateful for your advice. Thanks.

Mitch said:

does that mean that an older driver cannot be installed from a backup

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No, it doesn't. If the option to rollback the driver is grayed out, one can restore an older driver by deleting the current driver and manually installing the backed up driver if necessary.
The way most of us suggest to deal with Graphics drivers is a little bit different than other types drivers as they tend to be more fickle in causing problems. This is not the only way, but is considered the most thorough way.
If you ever need to do so here's how. We're always here to help if you get stuck.

Use DDU to uninstall the current driver. It has to be run in safe made. Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.6.4
After DDU runs, reboot into normal mode and you will see that your graphics will show in device manager as using the default MS driver.

At this point you have 2 options. You can download and install the older driver from the manufacturer and install it normally (they usually keep older drivers available depending on the manufacturer)
OR you can restore manually from your backup. Here's how.
Right click on it in device manager and select "update driver"
select "browse computer for drivers" make sure "include subfolders is checked"
Point it to the folder where you backed up your drivers

Hi glasskuter. Thanks for replying. The new Graphics Driver seems to be behaving itself but I usually keep the previous one until I'm sure. Somehow the old one was deleted so I can't rollback if there's a problem. It may have been auto deleted by Windows - I just noticed that the auto cleanup option was turned on (Settings/System/Storage/Storage Sense > Cleanup Of Temporary Files). Not sure if that was the cause.
I'll follow your advice if needed. Thanks again,
Mitch.