Removing Drivers Completely

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I'm wondering if anyone out there knows how windows keeps
it's driver history...

I'd like to remove all past versions of drivers.

I'd like to reinstall some hardware and do it clean
meaning I'd like to remove all traces of the hardware.

However no matter how hard I try when I goto add new
hardware it still 'remembers' that I've tried to install
it in the past since it shows up in the list of hardware.

Where does windows go to access this information?
Registry / inf?

 

[bar]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

There is no specific answer to your question.

Depending upon the device / type rtc there may be one or more places where this information is copied.

C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers
C:\WINDOWS\system

To uninstall any specific hardware and be sure that you have removed every entry throughout your PC then you should look at its 'xxxxx.inf' file and you will find where every entry in the driver folders and registry are located. You can then go to and remove it.

For example here is a piece of the information for a modem:


[DestinationDirs]

MTL.COPY.NT = 10, System32\Drivers ; \Windows\System32\Driver
CoinstCopy.NT = 11
APP.COPY.NT = 10

[SourceDisksNames]


[Modem1.nt]
AddReg= All, All.nt, MfgAddReg, Modem1.AddReg, INTERNAL, Strings1, ControlNamesSect, Voice_Serwave, Voice_All, DefaultCountry, DefaultCountryEx
CopyFiles= MTL.COPY.NT, APP.COPY.NT


[All]
HKR, HostBasedModemData\Parameters\Setup,InstallSource,,"%01%"
HKR,,ConfigDialog,0,modemui.dll

HKR, HostBasedModemData\Parameters\Speaker,Show,1,02,00,00,00
HKR,,PortSubClass,1,02
HKR,, ControlSum, 1, 17,03,19,82
HKR,,DCB,1, 1C,00,00,00, 00,08,07,00, 15,20,00,00, 00,00, 0a,00, 0a,00, 08, 00, 00, 11, 13, 00, 00, 00
HKR,Init,1,0, "AT<cr>"
HKR,,ModelVersion,0,%ModelVersion%

No0w if you can make sense of it and do each of your devices in the same manner...good luck.

I believe that you are better of with a clean installation:
add devices one at a time,
do a cold boot [not restart] after each device has been successfully installed
[that is any device beyond your basic configuration of Motherboard, Memory, 1 X Hard Drive, 1 X Optical Drive, 1 X Floppy, Video Card, Keyboard + Mouse]
Create a System Restore Point after you reboot

That way if any device causes a problem, restore to the check[point prior to it being installed. That way registry etc will be 'clean' of any specific files / drivers for that device.