How to delete the Driverstore folder in Windows

As a matter of fact, when working on a computer, and this also applies to beginners and experienced meters, everyone for himself must understand one simple but immutable truth. The personal computer is an open system, well, such a decision was made back in the distant 70s, and Bill Gates with his appeal: “A computer for every housewife” only added fuel to the fire. In other words, everything is publicly available, anything can be changed. Hence, the hacked banks around the world, hence the constantly “flying” systems after a single keystroke.

The conclusion in this situation can be made as follows: if you are not sure if you do not know the purpose of the folder or file (and this is a common thing, the vast majority of files — what they are for in the program system, especially Windows, we do not know), then in no case can they be deleted.

Well, indeed, why delete the folder DriveStore, even if its size is too large can be - almost 20 GB. To clear the disk ?! So, you have a 800 GB hard drive and 100–200 of them are always free! Why delete the folder if you do not know anything about it.

Therefore, the conclusion is the following - in no case the entire folder itself, nor its contents can be deleted!

Continuing to talk about deleting

Nevertheless, as Baron Munchausen said, we have thinking heads. Look at these names - DriveStore, and inside the folder - FileRepository. And of course, it becomes clear that the folder is related to drivers (DriveStore - Driver Warehouse) and a library of files.

This alone can be alerted - after all, the overwhelming majority of problems on the computer with drivers are precisely related.

Indeed, Windows is in the DriveStore folder on the system disk, at Windows \ System32 \, and puts all the drivers used on the computer. But the fact is, it stores there not only the current drivers, but also all that have been used until now. This is especially true for video card drivers, which we can change during the “life” of a computer more than once.

It turns out that with time in this folder a “pile of garbage” is formed, which is waiting for cleaning. Another thing is how to do it. Just launching “My Computer”, enter the folder and start deleting files, it will not work - the system will almost certainly fly. There are special tricks for working with this folder.

Cleared by system tools

The first thing you can do is use disk cleaning from My Computer.

So:

  1. Launch My Computer.
  2. Call the context menu of the system disk - usually it is “C:”.
  3. In the window that opens, at the very bottom, select "Properties".
  4. A disk properties window appears, broken down by tabs.
  5. On the "General" tab, click on the "Disk Cleanup" button.

    Cleaning local disk C

  6. We'll have to wait a bit - the system evaluates and measures what can be removed.
  7. Then a window opens in which you can select (check the checkboxes in the scrolling list) what you want to delete.
  8. Under this list is a more specific button - "Clear system files."

    Cleaning system files

  9. Click on it and see what you are looking for - the installation “Unnecessary system drivers” (it may be called a little differently, but you will grasp the essence immediately).
  10. Of course, the "tick" for us and beyond - "Start".

The process can take 5 and 10 minutes, it all depends on how long you have not done such a thorough cleaning. But in the end, Windows will remove all unnecessary drivers from the DriveStore folder.

Here, however, you need to understand that when we claim that Windows supposedly automatically removes everything, then a little cunning. In fact, cleaning is not quite clean, anyway, some garbage still remains, but you have to put up with it.

No, in fact, in the free software market you can find a lot of attractive programs that advertise "manna from heaven" - the cleaning is complete and without any consequences. But is it possible to believe such programs if the developers themselves anticipate their use with phrases like “we are not responsible for anything”. Therefore, you should not use such programs, if, of course, you are not afraid to spoil Windows and you have everything ready to rearrange it.

FileRepository folder

And now as for the driver library, the FileRepository folder.

Its contents are just as you can risk deleting. The fact is that not the currently used drivers are stored in this folder, but those that are used from time to time. When connecting such a device, the system itself accesses this folder for the driver that it has already used.

If you clear the FileRepository folder, then at the moment, most likely, you will not feel anything negative. Simply, when in 3-4 days you try to connect and work with your favorite camera again, and there were never any problems with it, this will not be possible. Remember, you just deleted files from the FileRepository folder.

More advanced cleaning method

There is another, more complicated way to remove unnecessary drivers. It is provided by the pnputil.exe utility included in the system package. Runs the utility from the command line and only under administrator control.

The utility is recognized as a convenient tool not only for removing, but also installing drivers, but for system administrators when it is necessary to install drivers for new users. The basis for the utility is an inf-file.

The command line utility has the following format:

pnputil.exe [-f | -i] [-? | -a | -d | -e]

Pnputil.exe utility commands

Keys have the following meanings:

  • -? - display help on usage, standard key for getting help for all system utilities;
  • -e - display a list of third-party drivers, it never hurts to check yourself before deleting;
  • -i - install driver;
  • -d - remove the driver;
  • -f - forcibly remove the driver of the device currently connected to the system, this is certainly a rare and emergency option;
  • -a - add package to install drivers;
  • The name of the .inf file is meant from the driver installation package.

Here are examples of using the utility, which reveal all its secrets:

  • pnputil –e | more - display the list of drivers with a paginal listing of the list on the screen;
  • exe -d oem0.inf - remove drivers only OEMs;
  • exe -f -d oem0.inf - remove the oem0.inf package, even if the device associated with it is connected to the system;
  • exe –a abc.INF - add abc driver package. A driver package is added to the repository without installation. Later, when the device is connected, the installation will be performed automatically;
  • exe –a system32 \ DRV \ *. inf - add all drivers whose .inf files are located in the system32 \ DRV directory;
  • pnputil –i –a xyz.inf - add to the repository and install the driver with the description in xyz.inf.