Drivers Question

[dgeorgiev98]

Hello, i am updating my graphic drivers trough Intel Driver and support Assistant which was installed with my Windows 10, but my question is.. since i download new update approximately once every month when they release it. What happens with the previous drivers? Do they get uninstalled automatically after i download the new ones or are they just stacking up in my computer and just taking space on my hard drive and if they do, how to uninstall them so i can save up as much space as possible and to have only my latest drivers which i use.

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello dgeorgiev98, 

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

Most likely when doing a manual install, downloading the driver will use some of the disk space as the file will be stored in the Downloads folder.  

However, I would like to confirm the procedure that the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant (Intel® DSA) follows. Please kindly wait for a response, once we have more information to share we will post it on this thread.  

Regards, 

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[n_scott_pearson]

@Sebastian_M_Intel, you are not answering the actual question asked.

The answer is that, in theory, the older driver is either uninstalled or replaced as part of the installation of the newer driver. I say 'in theory' because there are cases where this does not occur (though usually this is because of bugs in the installer/uninstaller, not anything done purposely).

Hope this helps,

...S

[dgeorgiev98]

Oh so it means, that the older ones are not stacking up in my hard drive, they have been replaced by the newer ones ?

[AlHill]

I see lots of drivers stacking up, especially graphic drivers.  This is particularly Intel graphic and nvidia graphic drivers.  I do not monitor AMD drivers (because I have so few machines with AMD).  The good news is that Nvidia offers you a checkbox for "clean install", which deletes their old drivers, where Intel has no such option for their graphic drivers.

This is the same for other products.  Way too many installers/uninstallers do a horrible job at cleanup.

So, yes, they stack up, and can accumulate quite a bit of space.  If you have a device with a low amount of storage, you have to monitor the storage to make sure it does not run too low.  The Intel Compute Stick is one such example.  Again, especially true for graphic drivers, being as large a package as they are.  Kudos to nvidia for offering the check box.

Now, for other products that leave a trail, they mostly are not that large to worry about.

With nvidia, the clean up is easy.  With intel graphics, you can remove all of them, one by one, in the device mangler until you get down to the Microsoft basic display adapter.  Then, from that point on, you can manage the accumulation.

There are also utilities out there that can clean up driver packages. This can lead to a crash, if you remove the wrong drivers.  However, with W10, and Windows Update, most all of these can be easily re-installed without too much of a problem.  For such utilities, search is your friend.

The failure of driver and application developers is their [almost deliberate] ignoring of cleaning up after themselves.  This is almost as bad as developers that ignore "Program Files", "Program Data", and your local and roaming profile structure for correctly installing programs.  When I see an installer that stores its app and data in the root, I immediately remove them from my holiday card list. 

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)

[n_scott_pearson]

As I said, "in theory". There are cases where bugs in the driver installer/uninstaller packages can cause buildup to occur and Al has highlighted some of them. If you really want to ensure that no buildup is occurring, use the process that Al has suggested, namely manually uninstalling the driver packages until down to the base (Microsoft) drivers and then installing the latest Intel package(s). I cannot stress enough NOT using the third-party install/uninstall/cleanup tools. The install/uninstall packages are mostly nefarious and the cleanup tools often do more damage than they fix.

...S

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dgeorgiev98, 

I would like to let you know that you can run the Windows utility Disk Cleanup and click on "Clean up system files". One of the choices is deleting "Device driver packages". This will delete all device drivers that the operating system knows can be safely deleted.

Also, as AlHill mentioned, you can use the device manager to manually delete previous drivers and install the latest ones. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dgeorgiev98,  

Were you able to check the previous post? Did you find the information helpful? Please let me know if you need more assistance.   

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dgeorgiev98,  

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this inquiry. If you need further assistance or if you have additional questions, please create a new thread and we will gladly assist you.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician