The concern with this is mostly about my ATI Radeon drivers but it is certenly not limited to ATI drivers or graphics adapters.
When you install a driver set, Win XP stores a backup of the driver somewere in the system. Such that even if you uninstall it completely, and then go to Update Drivers and select "select drivers from a list" the previous drivers will be on the list and instalable. Sometimes this is good as the driver is always in the case of a one-time only driver, but bad for frequently updated drivers like for the Radeon.
If you would ever use it, I have many entries saying Radeon 7200 in my case each one with a difernt driver. Whats even worse is that I don't know the driver version or the driver date or the driver location like I did in Win 9x (not ME).
But having these drivers listed is fine as I usualy install from a new set not an old one. The bigger problem is that if I install a Windows logo certified driver set as the CAT 3.1s and other drivers from ATI usualy are, windows replaces the standard generic XP drivers with the new drivers, so even if I do a complete driver uninstall, when I restart windows will automaticly reistall the last logo certified driver set, which may hinder the driver instalation.
I didn't care about this as it didn't cause problems untill I got the 3.1s. I installed them and they were horable. They were horable because the SmartGART was quite stupid and set AGP to off and fast writes to on. All acceleration was off, and direct 3D did not work and the worst for me that it automaticly booted into 640x480 instead of my usual 1024x768 which destroyed my icon arangement. ANd despite all my steps to keep my icon arangment, I could not fully recover. Eventualy someone on these forums told me that SmarGart might be the coulprate, so I set it to 4X AGP and fastwrites off and everything was fine. But it is not fine as now windows has them as the default, when I remove them install a new set on restart windos reinstalls the 3.1s again and once again the SmartGart goes nuts and my icons are destroyed. And even more, if I try to install the older Cat 2.5s over the 3.1, I first get new version questions which is fine, but for some reason the SmartGatr still has problems with the 2.5s as well now. I have looked and removed all ati reladed inf and sys and driver files I could find but I still can't get rid of the 3.1 drivers as the defalt.
I now use the latest Omega 3.1 based set which completely dissables the SmartGART so I no longer need to set but whatever the 3.1s did to cause the 640x480 default resolution is still in mys sytem.
So what I would like to know is how to delete all previously installed drivers from XP and know what version I am removing and restore the defaults and if possible dissable the updating of default drivers feature or at least controll which drivers become default and which do not.
Thank You
Michael Elkin
When you install a driver set, Win XP stores a backup of the driver somewere in the system. Such that even if you uninstall it completely, and then go to Update Drivers and select "select drivers from a list" the previous drivers will be on the list and instalable. Sometimes this is good as the driver is always in the case of a one-time only driver, but bad for frequently updated drivers like for the Radeon.
If you would ever use it, I have many entries saying Radeon 7200 in my case each one with a difernt driver. Whats even worse is that I don't know the driver version or the driver date or the driver location like I did in Win 9x (not ME).
But having these drivers listed is fine as I usualy install from a new set not an old one. The bigger problem is that if I install a Windows logo certified driver set as the CAT 3.1s and other drivers from ATI usualy are, windows replaces the standard generic XP drivers with the new drivers, so even if I do a complete driver uninstall, when I restart windows will automaticly reistall the last logo certified driver set, which may hinder the driver instalation.
I didn't care about this as it didn't cause problems untill I got the 3.1s. I installed them and they were horable. They were horable because the SmartGART was quite stupid and set AGP to off and fast writes to on. All acceleration was off, and direct 3D did not work and the worst for me that it automaticly booted into 640x480 instead of my usual 1024x768 which destroyed my icon arangement. ANd despite all my steps to keep my icon arangment, I could not fully recover. Eventualy someone on these forums told me that SmarGart might be the coulprate, so I set it to 4X AGP and fastwrites off and everything was fine. But it is not fine as now windows has them as the default, when I remove them install a new set on restart windos reinstalls the 3.1s again and once again the SmartGart goes nuts and my icons are destroyed. And even more, if I try to install the older Cat 2.5s over the 3.1, I first get new version questions which is fine, but for some reason the SmartGatr still has problems with the 2.5s as well now. I have looked and removed all ati reladed inf and sys and driver files I could find but I still can't get rid of the 3.1 drivers as the defalt.
I now use the latest Omega 3.1 based set which completely dissables the SmartGART so I no longer need to set but whatever the 3.1s did to cause the 640x480 default resolution is still in mys sytem.
So what I would like to know is how to delete all previously installed drivers from XP and know what version I am removing and restore the defaults and if possible dissable the updating of default drivers feature or at least controll which drivers become default and which do not.
Thank You
Michael Elkin
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