How do I delete folders from the Windows 7 DriverStore?

Question

I am having a problem getting a specific device to work, and I am trying to start from square one by making sure there are absolutely no leftover files from driver installs on my system. Specifically I'm trying to get rid of the UC-Logic drivers for a Monoprice 10x6 tablet.

However, I have found copies of the driver files in the windows DriverStore\FileRepository. But windows will not let me delete any folders from that location.

The best info I have found so far is to use pnputil.exe, however, since the drivers are not currently installed, it is not listed as an inf file that I can remove.

I could, as a scorched earth policy, jump into OS X and just delete them from there, but I'm worried that this may cause me issues. I would much rather find the 'proper' way of doing it.

Solution

Don't delete the files with the Explorer. remove the drivers correctly with pnputil.exe

• Open command prompt (cmd.exe) as admin and run pnputil -e > C:\drivers.txt

  

• open the file drivers.txt and look which .inf file is associated with the driver you want to remove

• run pnputil.exe -d oem<NUMBER>.inf

This removes the driver correctly. If this is too complicated, you can use the tool DriverStore Explorer [RAPR]

Click on enumerate, select the driver and click on Delete Package.

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

The "proper" way is to not manually delete the files in the FileReposity, hence it's trying to stop you from doing it. ;) Anyhow, this definitely seems like an XY problem.

[magicandre1981]

have you ever tried my linked command/tool? 3 years after asking still no response from you is disappointing. Does it work or do you need more details?

[Anton Belonovich]

Thanks! Just freed around 5 GB of space by deleting old NVidia drivers with this awesome RAPR tool.