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Driver Store-File Repository using huge disk space. How can I reduce – Microsoft Community

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/03/18

[WayBack] Driver Store-File Repository using huge disk space. How can I reduce – Microsoft Community

Try deleting the unneeded drivers by following the steps below:

  1. On the search bar, type command prompt, right-click on it from the list then run it as Administrator.
  2. Type the command pnputil.exe /e > c:\drivers.txt then click Enter.
  3. This command will create a file drivers.txt on C: drive with the list of driver packages that are stored in the File Repository folder.
  4. Delete all unnecessary drivers with the help of command pnputil.exe /d oemNN.inf (NN — is a number of drivers file package from drivers.txt, as example oem07.inf). In case the driver is in use, you will see an error while trying delete it.

This can happen if you swapped a lot of hardware around. Especially graphics drivers tend to be bloatware.

Note this only deletes uninstalled drivers. The problem: some driver software, especially video drivers, keeps parts installed, even during uninstall, and even when running in Safe Mode.

Examples for AMD:

Booting in Safe Mode

One of the nagging Windows 10 things is that out of the box it is hard to boot in safe mode: you have to reset and fail the boot your Windows system multiple times, or you have to hold a shift key (which some BIOS versions do not allow).

Luckily, you can reset the “press F8 during boot” behaviour of older Windows versions:

  1. Start an administrative command prompt (confirm UAC elevation if needed)
  2. Run this command (the bold changes the setting; the others keep track of the changes and show the difference):
    bcdedit /enum > %temp%\bcdedit.original.txt
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} DisplayBootMenu true
bcdedit /enum > %temp%\bcdedit.F8-enabled.txt
fc %temp%\bcdedit.original.txt %temp%\bcdedit.F8-enabled.txt

    (many sites you also need to run something like bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy or bcdedit /set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy or replace the “default” and “current” with the boot option of your choice, but that is not needed)

  3. Reboot
  4. Press F8 once (not multiple times!) as soon as the boot screen appears

    Do not press F8 twice, as it usually runs the mode with early loading of anti-virus software disabled.

  5. Press F4 for “Safe Mode”

This works way better than holding the shift key during rebooting: often that does not work on the machines I tried it on (despite [WayBack] How to boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode – CCleaner.com claiming it should work).

Notes

The DisplayBootMenu for bootmgr (which I found via [WayBack] Boot menu policy – set text or graphical style boot menu Windows 8) seems only documented for Azure site:docs.microsoft.com “bcdedit” “DisplayBootMenu” “bootmgr” – Google Search:

[WayBack] Azure Serial Console for Windows | Microsoft Docs

Disregard the official documentation and other links indicating about bootmenupolicy as they require you to set it for each boot configuration, while setting DisplayBootMenu for bootmgr sets it for all configurations at once:

Without bcdedit, be prepared for lengthy steps:

Boot menu options enabled

These options will be enabled when you have a boot menu (the numbers are the number keys or function keys to press in order to activate the option) via [Archive.is] Windows Startup Settings (including safe mode) – Windows Help:

  1. Enable debugging
  2. Enable boot logging
  3. Enable low-resolution video (640×480)
  4. Enable Safe Mode
  5. Enable Safe Mode with Networking
  6. Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt
  7. Disable driver signature enforcement
  8. Disable early launch anti-malware protection
  9. Disable automatic restart after failure

[WayBack] Image via [WayBack] Image Search from [WayBack] How to Fix a Computer That Won’t Start in Safe Mode:

Uninstall display drivers

The most effective way to fully get rid of a video driver is to run DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode.

I found it via [WayBack] Windows downgrade my Radeon Software down to 15.11 | Community.

–jeroen

via:

[WayBack]

Having BSOD Internal Power Error after updating lastest build W10 from windows

This entry was posted on 2022/03/18 at 18:00 and is filed under Power User, Windows, Windows 10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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