How to Uninstall Windows drivers

It's very easy to uninstall Windows drivers even for an ordinal computer user. It's sometimes necessary to uninstall the driver if you are having problems. This article is explaining in details how to uninstall Windows drivers.

The driver may be a part of an installed software package. For example, this is characteristically for printers and scanners. In this case, in order to remove the program and all its components from the Windows Control Panel, you should click "Start", then "Control Panel" and finally "Add or remove programs". This the best way for thoroughly removing of the software and drivers.

There is another way to uninstall drivers. You should use the Device Manager. In order to bring up it, click on "Start", then "Control Panel", then "Performance and Maintenance" and finally click "System" to open the new window. It has a tab "Hardware" which contains the Device Manager.

You can also reach the window you need by double clicking on the device, driver of which you are going to uninstall. "Properties" window will be opened. It has a tab marked "driver". Find here a button "Uninstall" and click it. If an unistalled driver was a part of the "Plug and Play" protocol in Windows NT or Windows XP, you should restart your computer for automatic driver reinstall.

"Plug and Play" works for monitor, basic modem, keyboard, mouse, graphics and sound cards. If you want to use the driver written by the manufacturer of the hardware you have installed, you should find a more recent version of the driver on the Internet according to the make and model of your device. It is also recommended to have a copy of the driver on a disc before you uninstall.

You can also use special programs that are available to identify all your drivers. Therefore, they will help you to find the replacements or updates for drivers.

If you are installing a driver manually instead of using an executable file, you should remove the old driver before the install in order to prevent clashes. Uninstall the old driver using the Device Manager as previously described.

So, there is no real danger in uninstall Windows drivers if you have the backup that comes with the hardware, or use drivers you have downloaded from a reliable Internet source, or just rely on plug and play technology.