How to Clean Left Over Driver Files with Driver Sweeper
Information
This tutorial with explane how to clean driver files left over after uninstalling hardware such as: Graphic Card, Sound, Microsoft mouse and even PhysX using Driver Sweeper, not cleaning left over files from uninstalling drivers can result in problems when utilizing the hardware.
Driver Sweeper is very easy to use. You only have to select the drivers you want to clean up. The best way to clean drivers is to first uninstall the drivers using the official uninstallers, reboot in Safe Mode and run Driver Sweeper. However, rebooting and not going into Safe Mode also works, but can cause some files not to be cleaned.
What can it be used for ? The current supported drivers are NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), ATI (Display), Creative (Sound), Ageia (PhysX), MMouse, Realtek (Sound), NEC (USB), Fresco Logic (USB), Marvell (Storage), JMicron (Storage), HP (Printer).
All the settings are saved in an ini file. Nothing is created in the registry, so it's possible to use it as a portable program. Log files can be saved to the hard disk and viewed as well. You can find the logs under the Tools menu.
System requirements:
Operating Systems - Any Windows version (32-bit and 64 bit) with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or higher installed.
Disk Space (Downloaded) - 5MB
Disk Space (Installed) - 20MB
1. Download and Install the Program
You can download the program here:
After installing the program you NEED to run the program as "Administrator", if you don't you will receive a error message and will not be able to run the program.
2. Running the Program
A) Uninstall the driver from Programs and Features within the Control Panel as your usually would, restart the computer if needed.
B) Run the program, select the driver you wish to clean by clicking on the check box.
C) After clicking the drivers you with to clean you can do one of two things you can click the Analyse button to see what is left over or you can click Clean to clean the left over files and registry entries straight away.
D) Afterwards you will be prompted to Restart the computer, after this is done you can install the new drivers
Great guide, but there's a spelling error: "3. After clicking the drivers you with to clean you can do one of two things you can click the "Analyse" button to see what is left over or you can click "Clean" to clean the left over files and registry entries strait away."
Straight is spelled wrong. ^ But other than that, excellent guide .
Keyboard Labtec Media Desktop Y-SAD65 Mouse Razer DeathAdder 3G Infrared Sensor (1800DPI) PSU ANTEC 750w Earthwatts Case Thermaltake Shark (VA7000SWA ATX) Full Tower Cooling Front 120mm fan (1400 RPM) /Rear 120mm (1400 RPM) blue LED Hard Drives 2x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ST3160815AS (AHCI) Internet Speed Telstra BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL2+ 24Mbps/256kbps Other Info ASUS PCE-N13 802.11n Wireless LAN card
Keyboard Labtec Media Desktop Y-SAD65 Mouse Razer DeathAdder 3G Infrared Sensor (1800DPI) PSU ANTEC 750w Earthwatts Case Thermaltake Shark (VA7000SWA ATX) Full Tower Cooling Front 120mm fan (1400 RPM) /Rear 120mm (1400 RPM) blue LED Hard Drives 2x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ST3160815AS (AHCI) Internet Speed Telstra BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL2+ 24Mbps/256kbps Other Info ASUS PCE-N13 802.11n Wireless LAN card
Keyboard Labtec Media Desktop Y-SAD65 Mouse Razer DeathAdder 3G Infrared Sensor (1800DPI) PSU ANTEC 750w Earthwatts Case Thermaltake Shark (VA7000SWA ATX) Full Tower Cooling Front 120mm fan (1400 RPM) /Rear 120mm (1400 RPM) blue LED Hard Drives 2x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ST3160815AS (AHCI) Internet Speed Telstra BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL2+ 24Mbps/256kbps Other Info ASUS PCE-N13 802.11n Wireless LAN card
System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom OS Win7 HP (x64)/Win7 Ultimate (x64) CPU Core i7 920 Motherboard Intel X58 Memory 6 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 Graphics Card CF HD4890 Sound Card Asus Xonar Monitor(s) Displays Dell 2408WFP Screen Resolution 1920 x 1200
Keyboard Razer Lycosa/N52te Mouse Razer Lachesis PSU Corsair HX1000W Case Antec 1200 Hard Drives 2 x 150GB WDC Velociraptors (Raid 0)
1 x 1TB Seagate
1 x 1.5TB Seagate
Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number [May-Dec-2012] - New Mid-tower - (is done!) OS Windows 7 Professional SP1 - x64 CPU Ivy Bridge Core i5 K Motherboard Asus H77 Chipset (ATX) Memory G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (16Gb) Graphics Card Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X Oc Sound Card SBXi-Fi Xtreme Audio (w/5.1 sound system) Monitor(s) Displays Asus Led 21,5" Screen Resolution 16/9
Keyboard Razer + Razer gamepad Mouse Razer PSU 700w 80+ Gold (ErP 6 ready) Case Cooler Master Silencio 550-v2 (modded) Cooling Gelid Solutions (PWM Push/pull Fans) Hard Drives Internal:
500Go Sata 6Gb/s (x2)
500Go Sata 3Gb/s (x2)
SSD 60Go Sata 6Gb/s Antivirus MSE 4.2 Browser IE10 Rtm
Keyboard Labtec Media Desktop Y-SAD65 Mouse Razer DeathAdder 3G Infrared Sensor (1800DPI) PSU ANTEC 750w Earthwatts Case Thermaltake Shark (VA7000SWA ATX) Full Tower Cooling Front 120mm fan (1400 RPM) /Rear 120mm (1400 RPM) blue LED Hard Drives 2x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ST3160815AS (AHCI) Internet Speed Telstra BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL2+ 24Mbps/256kbps Other Info ASUS PCE-N13 802.11n Wireless LAN card
So this just removes the old files left over after the uninstallation of the said drivers? It doesn't clean the extracted or temporary files that the installers create? For example, when installing an Nvidia driver, it will be extracted first (as far as i know). After installation, we don't need those files anymore right? It doesn't clean these right?
I've downloaded the application but will wait for a response before I start using it. Cheers!
System Manufacturer/Model Number Own Build OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 CPU AMD Athlon II x4 Propus 2.9 GHz Motherboard ASUS M2N68 AM-PLUS Memory Transcend 2 x 2 GB DDR2800 Graphics Card Sapphire Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 Sound Card On-board 6-Channel HD Audio Monitor(s) Displays 18' Chimei 95ND Screen Resolution 1366 x 768
Keyboard A4tech KL-126 Backlit Keyboard Mouse A4tech N400 Padless Mouse PSU Generic 600W Case Generic Transparent Side Cooling Generic 2 x 80mm Fans (.28A side case fan) Hard Drives 1 x 80 GB SATA 7200 RPM
1 x 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM
1 x 1 TB Western Digital MyBook Essentials Internet Speed 2Mb/s DL, 0.9Mb/s UL Other Info Aztech DSL5001EN
Nokia 701 Custom Firmware
1 X 32GB Documents USB
1 X 2GB Bootable USB
That "NVIDIA" folder you just delete manually, this program is designed to delete the left over files once you have uninstalled the driver through "Programs and Features", there can be problems caused if you just uninstall then install the new drivers, the old and new drivers may conflict with each-other and cause errors.
Keyboard Labtec Media Desktop Y-SAD65 Mouse Razer DeathAdder 3G Infrared Sensor (1800DPI) PSU ANTEC 750w Earthwatts Case Thermaltake Shark (VA7000SWA ATX) Full Tower Cooling Front 120mm fan (1400 RPM) /Rear 120mm (1400 RPM) blue LED Hard Drives 2x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ST3160815AS (AHCI) Internet Speed Telstra BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL2+ 24Mbps/256kbps Other Info ASUS PCE-N13 802.11n Wireless LAN card
Information
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Explorer left folder panel missing after uninstalling DiskView 
