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#1
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Gather Drivers
Is there an app that will copy all Windows drivers to a folder ? Why ? If I want to totally clean a PC C: Drive and load Windows back on the drive making a free install, I would like to reuse the working drivers that I probably will not be able to find on the web. |
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#2
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Gather Drivers
"OGER" wrote
| | Is there an app that will copy all Windows drivers to a folder ? | | Why ? If I want to totally clean a PC C: Drive and load Windows back on | the drive making a free install, I would like to reuse the working | drivers that I probably will not be able to find on the web. | Go get them now, so you have the actual installers. If it's a Dell you can download them all from Dell. For other companies, download from the hardware makers. I'm assuming this is a home-built box. Otherwise you'd have a restore image with all the drivers pre-installed. With newer motherboards you might not need much other than the motherboard drivers. Audio, graphics and network hardware are usually just chips on the board these days. |
#3
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Gather Drivers
OGER wrote:
Is there an app that will copy all Windows drivers to a folder ? Why ? If I want to totally clean a PC C: Drive and load Windows back on the drive making a free install, I would like to reuse the working drivers that I probably will not be able to find on the web. But having the driver *file* won't "install" it into the registry. Windows might register the driver file when you scan for drivers for some hardware but that assumes that registration of only the driver file is sufficient for full functionality of the hardware and that Windows will recognize the driver when you point at its file and that you will know to which one to point when telling Windows to use for the hardware. While Windows might register a driver that you point at its file, that may not give you the full features of the hardware. There may be an ..inf file that defines further functions or ancilliary software to use with the hardware; e.g., installing and registering a driver for a scanner won't give you the software that came with the scanner. Software that backs up the driver files does not also store all the driver's registry entries into .reg files. Make sure you locate (and perhaps duplicate) all the installers for the drivers for your current hardware and each one for each version or range of Windows to which you may revert to using. Trying to get them later may be too late since manufacturers discontinue products and will eventually also discontinue providing the drivers for their unsupported products. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEzPTOEpNUg You don't have to enter PowerShell and then enter an internal command for it to run each time you want to backup ONLY the driver files. You could specify the operation on the command line you use to invoke PowerShell, as in: powershell.exe -command Note that this exports (saves) all the 3rd-party drivers, not those embedded within Windows (which should get used when Device Manager does a scan for new hardware after a fresh install of Windows provided you install the same version of Windows with the same set of embedded drivers). Although the above Youtube video and even Microsoft's own article at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps claim that the Export-WindowsDriver cmdlet exists, nope, it doesn't on Windows 7. That cmdlet requires a later version of PowerShell than you can get on Windows 7. That cmdlet is available in Windows 10. Per https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=wps.630).aspx, the Export-WindowsDriver cmdlet didn't exist until Windows 8.1. You'll need a software tool, like DoubleDriver (www.boozet.org/dd.htm) that the Youtube author mentions. The author's site says his tool support both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Some tools are 32-bit only (e.g., it took years before the free version of Revo Uninstaller supported 64-bit) the result of which is that the tool won't know about the registry redirection for 32-bit registry entries and end up only accessing a portion of the registry. Alas, this author has not maintained his web site to reflect where his software is currently hosted (aka mirrored), so his download links are useless. Found it at https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/det...le_driver.html where both download links gave me a portable (non-installable) version of Double Driver 4.10. It has not been updated since about August 2010. There are alternatives to Double Driver. Some are free, some are payware. You didn't mention price criteria. DriverBackup! is free and open source (sourceforge.net/projects/drvback/), last updated Aug 2016. Searching on "double driver alternative" can find some alternatives. I've not used these tools. I save image backups: one after a fresh install of an OS, another after fully updating it at that time, and periodic backups during the lifetime of the OS to get me back to a prior state of the partition(s). I also keep all the installers for the drivers: they're stored in a Download folder (along with all other downloaded software) that gets backed up to multiple local storage media (an internal HDD for fast and easy access, CDs, and flash drives) and synchronized to cloud storage, too. |
#4
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Gather Drivers
On Sat, 4 Aug 2018 20:29:13 -0700, OGER wrote:
Is there an app that will copy all Windows drivers to a folder ? Why ? If I want to totally clean a PC C: Drive and load Windows back on the drive making a free install, I would like to reuse the working drivers that I probably will not be able to find on the web. I use Double Driver. It saves only the drivers, not all the adware and sometimes spyware that sometimes come bundled with the "official" drivers. I install Windows, install all the drivers from the MB's DVD, update them, save them with Double driver to a USB then format and reinstall Windows, and then use Double Driver to re-install the drivers. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...le_driver.html http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...e-Driver.shtml It's portable. If they work OK I burn the drivers to a CD (I still have some left) just in case I get malware or a crash that messes with the drivers. Installing Windows twice in a day is a royal PITA. []'s -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
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