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I have been struggling getting some 3G USB modems and some other hardware to work and in the process I have managed to get a lot of unnecessary and just plain wrong drivers installed. This is causing my system and other hardware to work incorrectly. I would like to remove all the drivers on this system and have windows reinstall all the default drivers.

Can I do this with a Windows 7 repair install or how else can I get rid off all the current drivers.

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3 Answers 3

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I would recommend that you do a clean reinstall of Windows 7, that way you can wipe all of the old drivers, and Windows 7 will automatically reinstall the default drivers needed (for the most part).

Obviously, it is not possible to remove all of the drivers in an operating system, because it will break the OS permanently, thus a clean reinstall is pretty much the only way to go...

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You can use sysprep tool for that. Just run it from c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe, check Generalize and hit OK

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    While this answer could be correct, a much better answer would be if you could include how you would use sysprep to do that.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Commented Feb 9, 2014 at 15:36
  • @ScottChamberlain just run it from c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe, check Generalize and hit OK
    – Poma
    Commented Feb 9, 2014 at 16:05
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    That would be good to put in your answer, not a comment.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Commented Feb 9, 2014 at 16:22
  • @ScottChamberlain done
    – Poma
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 7:15
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    I'd downgrade this answer if I could, but I don't have enough reputation for it on this site. I tried to run sysprep since I've been having similar issues to the OP and it gave me a message saying that sysprep only works on a custom clean install of Windows.
    – Evan Lynch
    Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 5:13
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Removing ALL drivers will damage windows and make your life horrible! Your are better off selectively removing the drivers.

Boot from Windows 7 DVD Select Repair and command prompt

If instead of a wim file your working with an offline copy of windows substitute the path that has the windows folder on it for c:\test\offline. When in the command prompt mode from the windows 7 DVD your drive letter may not be the same. Also with an offline copy of windows dism /Mount-Image maybe skipped.

This is all that is require on a offline version of windows.

Dism /Image:C:\ /Get-Drivers

Lists all drivers

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Get-Drivers

feed the list one at a time into the remove command below. It is only necessary to mount once, not once per driver.

You create an empty folder called test and within that another empty folder called offline. The wim file will be mounted to that folder.

Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\test\images\install.wim /Name:"Windows 7 HomeBasic" /MountDir:C:\test\offline

Remove a specific driver from the image. Multiple drivers can be removed on one command line. For example, type:

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Remove-Driver /Driver:OEM1.inf /Driver:OEM2.inf

Removing a boot-critical driver package can make the offline Windows image unbootable

Adding drivers also has a command

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\drivers\mydriver.inf /ForceUnsigned

Dism /Image:C:\test\offline /Add-Driver /Driver:c:\drivers /Recurse
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  • Where is C:\test\offline coming from?
    – Fake Name
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 5:05
  • @FakeName You create an empty folder called test and within that another empty folder called offline. The wim file will be mounted to that foler. See further edits I just made.
    – cybernard
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 12:50

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