Missing driver with 'ptun0901' hardware ID

Question

I noticed in Device Manager (under Windows 10) that there are six entries named Unknown Device under Other Devices with a warning overlay in their icons.

I right-clicked on them, clicked Properties, and in Details tab I can see for all of them, under property hardware ID, the description ptun0901.

I did a brief search on the Internet and found that the problem seems to be a missing driver for OpenVPN TAP-Windows Virtual Network Driver.

The strange thing is that I've never used OpenVPN, not consciously at least. I don't even know precisely what a VPN is, and don't know which device could need it. So the question is "Should I download the missing drivers (from the OpenVPN site), or should I simply click Uninstall Device? Is the second one a safe solution?"

Solution

TAP is a virtual network kernel interface, a virtual network card in other words, used for creating a connection between two networks. It is normally installed by VPN products, but is not created by the standard installation of Windows.

As you never noticed a problem until now, this device might be a left-over from the installation of some VPN product that you have subsequently removed. This is born out by the fact that its driver has been removed from your Windows setup, probably when you removed the VPN product.

You may remove it safely. This will not harm your Windows installation. If in the future one of your products complains about it, just reinstall it.

Comments

[user1686]

Have you used any other VPN software? (Or been trying to crack Windows or MS Office?) The TUN driver is commonly used standalone by other such programs.

[simonet]

It may be, but I'm not 100% sure.