Tips to Find and Replace Old Windows Drivers

In this article we will look at how to find and replace and update outdated drivers of the old Windows drivers.

When installing and updating outdated drivers, it is often necessary to remove old ones: for example, a new driver may conflict with an old one, or simply cause an installation error. Most often this happens with drivers for: printer, network cards, USB, PCI-devices.

Many Windows users are faced with such a situation when installing new drivers leads to improper operation of devices, and sometimes the system itself is blocked from starting. With time, Windows has many backups on the system, temporary files, old drivers, which gradually takes up space on the hard drives. Obviously, you can keep cleaning the drive C from unwanted files to free up some space, but what if the old drivers cause troubles with the installation or updates of outdated drivers? Especially because it can be caused with wireless mice, keyboards and other USB devices that from time to time do not work until removing old drivers, then replacing them with the new ones.

What You Should Do?

To remove old driver versions, launch Reg Organizer and enable the System Cleanup tool. Make sure you have checked the box next to the section Old driver files (by default, this option is enabled in the system cleaning tool).

Much more space can be manually freed up with the driver updater software ITL Driver Updater. It will help you analyze the used disk space, free up space by removing unnecessary information and compressing photos without losing quality.

Remove Old Driver Versions :

In all recent versions of Windows there is a built-in disk cleaning utility.

This same tool gives us the ability to easily remove old Windows 10, 8 or Windows 7 drivers from the computer. Even for a beginner, a user who has just started using the tenth generation operating system, it is not difficult to remove old drivers in Windows 10 with such a tricky method.

To do this, follow these steps:

Step 1. Run Disk Cleanup. Press the Win + R keys (where Win is the Windows logo key) and type cleanmgr in the Run window.

Step 2. In the Disk Cleanup utility, click on the “Clean up system files” button (this requires that you have administrator rights).

Step 3. Check the Device Driver Packages box. In my screenshot, the specified item does not take up space, but in some cases the size of stored drivers can reach several gigabytes.

Step 4. Click “OK” to start uninstalling old drivers.

Step 5. After a short process, the old drivers will be removed from the Windows store. However, keep in mind that in this case, in the properties of drivers in Device Manager, the Rollback button will become inactive.

Removing Old Drivers in Windows 10 Using a Driver Updater Software:

For Windows 10 there is a more convenient tool for removing old driver versions – ITL Driver Updater, which, among other things, allows you to remove or update outdated drivers.

How to Reinstall a Driver in Windows:

After removing the driver, there is a logical need to reinstall it. Again, there are several ways to do this.

The first and most reliable one is to download the driver from the manufacturer’s website. There you can always find the latest and most current driver versions for the supported operating systems. Also, manufacturers often offer previous versions of software. This is necessary so that in the event of a buggy update, users can download the previous stable version and wait for the corrected driver to be released. Go to the manufacturer’s official website, find your device, download the driver installation file and install it. The matter is very simple and not as scary as it might seem to a novice user.

The second way is for the lazy. You can let the system do everything for you. After uninstalling the driver, go to Windows Update and check for updates. Windows should find the missing driver or outdated driver, download it, install it or update outdated drivers.

It should be borne in mind here that not all manufacturers publish their software in the Windows Update Center. Also, the most recent driver version is not always available there. This method is well suited for those who do not have the time or desire to surf the Internet in search of the right driver. If a search through the update center did not return any results, go to the manufacturer’s website and manually download the driver you need.

The third way is all the same driver updater softwares like ITL Driver Updater. They can scan the system for driver updates or devices for which no software is installed and remove or update outdated drivers on your PC automatically. You have updated the device’s outdated drivers on your computer and you can now expect it to run better and faster.