Almost every user connects a phone, tablet, reader, flash drive and external HDD to a computer. When working with these devices, Windows installs their drivers. At the end of use, they are not deleted from the computer (that is, they gradually accumulate) and, just like temporary files, unnecessary registry entries clutter the system.
In addition to this, if devices are disconnected from the USB port incorrectly (they are pulled out without software shutdown using the “Eject” function), then the installed drivers not only remain in the system, but also continue to function. Because of this, they often become the cause of a software conflict when connecting another USB device (the system “does not see” the device, gives errors, freezes).
This article will help you avoid all these troubles: it will tell you how to completely remove the driver of an unused USB drive or gadget from the operating system, and how to automatically uninstall all USB drivers.
Removal using standard means
Surface cleaning
1. Open the Start menu.
2. Right-click in the “Computer” panel that appears. From the list of commands, select “Properties”.
3. In the left column, click “Device Manager”.
4. In the manager window, in the horizontal menu, open the “View” section and click “Show hidden devices”.
5. Open the “USB Controllers” directory.
6. Remove an old or unused driver: right-click on its name → click “Delete”.
Deep cleaning
1. Hold down the Win key and press the Pause/Break key. Or open: Start → right-click Computer → Properties.
2. In the window that opens, in the left panel, click “Advanced system settings”.
3. On the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button.
4. In the top block, click “Create”.
5. In the New User Variable window:
- in the “Variable name” line, enter - devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices;
- in “Variable value” - 1.
6. Click OK in the Variable panel and in the Environment Variables window.
7. Return to the system properties window (Win+Break) and click “Device Manager”.
8. In the manager, open: View → Show hidden...
9. Click the “Update configuration...” button (the last one in the panel).
10. Icons of unused drivers in the manager are grayed out (that is, you can remove this driver). Open the following directories one by one and remove unnecessary elements (right-click on the name → Delete):
Non-plug and play device drivers
Advice! In this directory you can also remove old drivers installed by programs that have already been uninstalled from Windows (for example, the Comodo firewall package).
This device section displays installed drivers for flash drives, readers, and hard drives. Transparent object icons indicate that they are not in use (not connected). This means you can safely get rid of them.
11. Once cleaning is complete, restart your PC.
Automatic removal by USBDeview utility
1. Copy this link into the address bar of your browser - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html#DownloadLinks (official website of the utility). And then press "ENTER".
2. On the page that opens:
- if you have a 32-bit system, click the first link “Download USBDeview”;
- if 64-x, the second - “... for x64 systems”.
3. Unpack the downloaded archive: right-click on it → select “Extract all...” → in the “Unpack...” window click “Extract”.
4. Open the unzipped folder. Run the USBDeview executable file with administrator rights.
5. The utility window displays a list of all drivers installed in the system. Disabled elements are marked with red “chips”.
To remove a driver from Windows, select it with a mouse click, and then click the “Trash” icon in the USBDeview panel. Or right-click on it and select “Uninstall Selected Devices” from the context menu.
Note. In addition to the removal function, USBDeview allows the user to disable/enable the driver and view its properties.
Removing all USB device drivers
Global driver cleaning can be performed using the DriveCleanup utility (download link - http://uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip).
1. Unpack the archive downloaded to your computer.
2. If you have 32-bit Windows, open the “Win32” folder; if you have 64-bit, open the “x64” folder.
3. Run the “DriveCleanup” file as administrator.
After launch, the utility will automatically perform cleaning. When the procedure is complete (when the message “Press any key” appears in the console window), press any key.
Good luck in setting up the system!
Free USBDeview programis designed to display detailed information about all USB devices ( flash card, mobile phone, smartphone, camera, mouse, printer, etc., etc.), ever connected to your computer or laptop, netbook. It doesn’t matter whether it is currently connected or not.
Good afternoon everyone, or have a nice evening. As you might have guessed, today we will talk about such a wonderful, I repeat, free USBDeview program. During the life of a computer or laptop, we constantly connect and disconnect various USB devices to it ( smart, mouse, printer, etc ).
As is known (not everyone) that every device connected to a computer via a USB port will definitely remain in the system ( all information about connected devices is entered into) your mark in the form of .
USBDeview Features:
- device name/description;
- prohibit and allow the operation of devices;
- date and time when the device was added and time of last connection;
- disable and change the device letter;
- serial number;
- open device settings in the system registry editor;
- product and manufacturer identification numbers;
- assign device autostart;
- can uninstall USB devices that you used previously;
- copy its properties to the clipboard and display information about it in the form of an HTML report;
- disconnect those that are currently connected to your computer;
- assign commands to be executed when connecting and disconnecting a USB device to a computer port;
You can download the program from this link. The archive contains a 32 and 64 bit version of the program in Russian. You need to select the one you need and tap on the exe file. USBDeview does not require installation (-version). The main program window looks something like this.
Pay attention to the top panel where the red, green and blue circles are located, namely green, this means that the device is currently active.
When you right-click on any device, you can select: disconnect the USB device, delete it, properties, view content, etc. Also pay attention to the controllability.
Double tapping on the selected device will show us the properties of this device.
The program also has such a useful function as “Open in Registry Editor”; to open this function, select the desired device, right-click on it, then select the appropriate item.
After which a direct transition is made to the registry editor with this driver.
That's basically all there is to it, I think that the program will be useful to any PC user. Using this program, you can block, allow, or remove selected devices, as well as solve many different problems with drivers.
Sincerely,
Does the system administrator monitor every step of the employees whose computers he maintains? Not only is access to the Internet limited, but you also cannot bring any information on a flash drive to your work PC (or steal some information from the company’s network). The situation is close to many office employees, and students are not always spared.
Our compatriot Nikolai Raspopov offers one of the ways to solve it as follows: we connect the flash drive to the laptop, do everything we need, turn off the device and clear traces of its presence in the system. However, the flash drive drivers will remain in the system after such erasing of traces.
The application runs on computers running:
- Windows 7;
- Windows 8.1;
- Windows 10
Getting rid of traces of connecting removable drives
The program for removing traces of flash drive connection is distributed free of charge for both bits of Microsoft operating systems. The archive contains versions for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows. This application is also equipped with a graphical interface with one button and a couple of options:
- simulation of deleting keys related to removable digital media from the registry;
- activating/disabling the creation of a backup copy of deleted registry branches (stored in the “Documents” directory).
Thanks to the latter function, USBOblivion will protect the user from possible negative consequences of its own functioning (although in practice none have been observed).
To erase traces of USB drives once connected to the computer, you need to activate both options and click “Cleanup”. It is also possible to simulate the operation of an application that does not require a license key. In this mode, the cleaner will collect all the necessary data, find unnecessary keys and display information about the work done, skipping the steps of backing up and deleting junk keys.
Useful information about Oblivion USB
Considering that the program interface must be in Russian (in accordance with the language of the OS used), sometimes there is a need to switch it, for example, when the localization is incorrectly determined. You cannot install another language through the GUI, but there is an argument (parameter) “-lang:” for this. To call the utility with a Russian-language interface, you need to run the command “USBOblivion64.exe -lang:19” on the command line (for a 32-bit OS the command will look like “USBOblivion32.exe -lang:19”), going to the directory with the executable file. The interface language is set to English when starting the cleaner with the “-lang:09” parameter.