How to find and remove leftover drivers? + separate Q about OpenGL

Answers to forum sticky:

1. Motherboard: HP Compaq 6710b
2. Driver problems: Unnecessary(?) drivers in System32, DllCache, and Drivers folders, plus general questions about OpenGL and driver cleanup. Details further below.
3. Hard-/software specs: Windows XP/SP3. Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family (Intel GMA X3100, Intel Video BIOS, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator, GPU Code = Crestline-GM, supports DirectX v9.0c and OpenGL v2.0.0 according to Everest).
4. Steps taken: I have the latest versions of DriverMax and Driver Magician Lite installed, plus various other utilities that may be helpful incl. DriverView, serviwin, SysinternalsSuite, Process Hacker, Dependency Walker, NFR, and I've tried some of the free OpenGL utilities from MG (DirectGL, etc.).
5. Located drivers: I have the latest drivers from DriverMax. I also check HP's and Intel's websites now and then.

More details:

1. I recently had a problem involving some leftover Kaspersky drivers and reg entries. The files in question were in the System32\Drivers folder, but I think I've built up similar leftover driver crap from other software and hardware in the Drivers folder, and probably in System32 and DllCache folders.

What would be a good program (if any exist) to scan Windows XP system folders for unnecessary drivers. i.e. drivers for software and hardware that are not present anymore?

Do extra drivers slow my system down if they are left in the System32 or Drivers folder? Is there a place in Windows for storing drivers that you don't currently need (may never need), but want to have available for Windows to find automatically if needed?

2. Since my laptop uses Intel graphics drivers, I don't see any need for the ATI and nVidia files present in various Windows subdirs. I already removed them from System32, but there are still some entries in Drivers, DllCache and Inf folders. Should I clean them out completely, or may I need them despite the Intel hardware?

3. I think I have the latest Intel graphics drivers. According to Everest, they currently support OpenGL v2.0 and DirectX v9.0c. Are OpenGL and DirectX limited by the hardware, or can I install something that would make my current hardware support applications requiring OpenGL v2.1, for example? VirtualDub's MSU-Denoiser v2.51 requires OpenGL 2.1 so that's why I ask - it still runs on my computer, but not all features (GPU acceleration) are available.

Thanks in advance.

 

There really is no such thing as 'extra' drivers. Drivers are either installed and working, or they're not. So, the answer to this question is "No".

Refer to my 1st answer above... again, the answer is "No". Windows will not "automatically" find a driver if it's in some custom location. If the files are in the Windows INF cache or in the Drivers folder(s), then in theory Windows could find them 'automatically' but you'd probably still be prompted to have Windows search for them. Windows will not just start looking for drivers on it's own without asking you first.

They aren't causing any problems, and after researching your system I see that they don't appear to be used by anything, so you could clean them out. They are probably part of a standard Windows install since Windows has built-in drivers for many nVidia and ATI devices (among others). But since the files aren't the cause of any performance or stability issues, I personally see no reason to get rid of 'em, but that's up to you.

Yes.

 

Thanks. That clears things up for the most part.

Any suggestions for identifying the ones that are not working correctly when the conflict or problem they cause is not immediately evident from a system crash or an error message?

For example, these leftover Kaspersky driver files were just running in the background on my computer, collecting "space" into fidbox.dat (upto 5GB before I first rezeroed it), and keeping the file locked so that defraggers either couldn't process it, or if they could (maybe in safe mode, etc), they would probably have placed it in a prime spot on the drive due to the frequent accessing of and modifications to it, thereby depriving legitimate files that fast access area.

 

Uuuggghhhh.... Kaspersky.... a nightmare to remove. The few times I've had to deal with removing Kaspersky, I ended up having to boot to a 'live' CD (like a PECD or the UBCD4Win or even a Linux disc like Knoppix) and manually going through the drive and deleting everything and anything Kaspersky related. It's ironic: removing Kaspersky antivirus software is often more difficult than removing the viruses it was designed to remove. :confused Odd, no? I used Kaspersky a grand total of 3 times over the period of 6 months on 3 different PCs, and each time uninstalling it turned into a major nightmarish project and I will NEVER use ANY Kaspersky products again, nor will I recommend them, and I will ALWAYS talk trash about Kaspersky at any given opportunity. Besides booting to a live CD (or removing the hard drive and slaving it to a 2nd PC) I know of no other way to completely rid yourself of the Kaspersky 'infection'. You can try contacting their tech support, but when I tried, I got nowhere. Just the automated "thanks for contacting Kaspersky support" email. Good luck!