How to Uninstall Drivers in Windows 11

September 29, 2022 Abraham Smith

A device driver is an important component that allows the computer to recognize and manage the installed hardware. But sometimes the installed drivers cause more problems than they solve.

Fortunately, you can quickly uninstall drivers on your computer. Here are five ways to uninstall drivers in Windows 11.

When should you uninstall a device’s drivers?

As mentioned earlier, a device driver is an important component that tells your computer how to communicate with its associated device. For example, to connect and use your webcam, a camera driver is needed that bridges the gap between the computer and the webcam and gives you the result.

Without the camera driver, your webcam is just a gadget that does nothing. However, certain drivers can sometimes cause various problems on your computer. These issues can lead to device failures and are one of the reasons why Windows sometimes crashes.

So if any of the installed drivers are causing problems on your system, you need to uninstall them to solve the problem.

1. How to uninstall drivers using Device Manager

Device Manager is one of the most used tools on a Windows computer. With it, you can identify unknown devices, update and uninstall drivers. You can also use it to enable or disable a device.

Follow these steps to uninstall a driver using Device Manager:

open that power menu Use of Victory + X hotkey.
Choose device manager from the menu.
Double-click the category that contains the device driver that you want to remove.
Right-click the device and select Uninstall device from the context menu.
click Uninstall to the confirmation that pops up.

The selected driver will be completely removed from your system.

The above steps will uninstall all device drivers except printer driver. You can uninstall a printer driver by following the other methods in this guide.

2. How to uninstall drivers using Settings app

The Settings app is the central hub for almost all Windows settings. You can use it to manage settings, configure the operating system and control the connected devices. You can also use the Settings app to manually uninstall a device driver.

To uninstall drivers using the Settings app:

Open the Settings app using one of the many ways to open Settings on Windows 11.
Choose applications from the left panel.
Choose Installed Applications. Here you will find all applications and drivers installed on your computer.
Locate and click the three points next to the driver you want to uninstall.
Choose Uninstall from the context menu.
click Uninstall back to the confirmation box that appears.

That’s it. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

3. How to uninstall drivers using Control Panel

The Control Panel is an important Windows component that allows you to manage system settings. These settings control almost everything about how your system works and looks, and you can use them to effectively set up Windows the way you want it.

The Control Panel has a Programs and Features section where you can manage all installed applications and drivers. You can uninstall a device driver from Control Panel by following the steps below:

Open the Run dialog box by pressing victory + R hot keys.
Type run in the search bar Switchboard and press Enter.
change that Seen by to category.
click programs and then click Uninstall a program.
Find the driver you want to uninstall and right-click on it.
Choose change uninstallation from the context menu.
click Yes to the UAC that pops up.

Next, follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the driver on your computer.

4. How to Uninstall Drivers Using Command Prompt

The Windows command processor, also known as the command prompt, is the command line interface of a Windows computer. It’s a way to interact with your system through text commands.

You can use Command Prompt to perform various tasks including uninstalling drivers on your computer. Here’s how:

open that start menu by pressing the Win Key.
Type in the search bar command prompt and click the Execute as administrator option in the right pane.
Type the following command and press Enter. This command will display all third-party drivers installed on your system.
```
Dism /online /Get-Drivers /Format:Table
```
To view third-party drivers as well as your computer’s system drivers, type the following command and press Enter.
```
Dism /online /Get-Drivers / all /Format:Table
```
Make a note of the published name of the driver you want to uninstall. For example, if you want to uninstall the NVIDIA driverthen is his published name oem28.inf.
To uninstall the driver, type the following command and press Enter. Replace
by the published name of the driver you want to uninstall.
```
pnputil /delete-driver <Published Name> /uninstall /force
```

Running these commands will forcefully uninstall the driver from your computer.

The third-party driver list also includes the names of drivers that are no longer installed on your computer. You will get an error message if you try to uninstall such drivers using the above steps.

5. How to uninstall drivers using autoruns

Autoruns is a system utility that displays all programs currently running on your computer. You can use it to close background applications, manage services, and even uninstall drivers.

To uninstall drivers using autoruns:

Open a browser and visit the Microsoft Autoruns page.
Scroll down and click the Download autoruns and autorunsc link.
Extract the downloaded file.
Locate and double click on it Autoruns64.exe.
Choose To run from the prompt that appears. The Autoruns window appears.
press the driver Tab.
Find the driver you want to uninstall and right-click on it.
Choose Extinguish from the context menu.
click Yes to the prompt that appears.

Remove problematic drivers from Windows 11

A corrupted or problematic device driver can disrupt your workflow and keep you busy throughout the day. You can uninstall all these drivers using the above methods.

Another way to fix a corrupted or problematic driver is to download the latest update. Each update contains new functions and eliminates all driver problems.

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