GodfreyOuwens Posted September 17, 2010 Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 (edited) For those that find themselves installing and testing drivers, you may notice that your Windows Vista/7 installation is growing larger and larger. Thats because Windows is storing previous installs in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore even when you do a driver uninstall. Many of us now use SSD's, and cleaning out MBs or even GBs of space would greatly help...... I know theres other tools that people use like ccleaner etc, but I thought I would just post a quick reg tweak that allows you to add "Take Ownership" to the context menu. This way while browsing thru DriverStore, you can just right-click a file, take-ownership, and delete the file. ( Note: Deleting the wrong file may cause uninstall and rollback problems, but just make sure you know what it is you are deleting ) To add "Take Ownership" to context menu, copy and paste the following into notepad and save as .reg ( then double click the .reg file ) Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas] @="Take Ownership" "NoWorkingDirectory"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command] @="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F" "IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas] @="Take Ownership" "NoWorkingDirectory"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command] @="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t" "IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t" To Remove "Take Ownership" from context menu, copy and paste the following into notepad and save as .reg ( then double click the .reg file ) Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas] [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas] This may have been posted before, I am not sure, but I thought I would finally add something that I have learned :) .... considering I have only been a member for 4 1/2 years :) Good luck and Good Computing!!! Edited September 17, 2010 by GodfreyOuwens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktendo64 Posted September 17, 2010 Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 (edited) Better to use pnputil (if you truly want the driver uninstalled) Microsoft PnP Utility Usage: ------ pnputil.exe [-f | -i] [ -? | -a | -d | -e ] <INF name> Examples: pnputil.exe -a a:\usbcam\USBCAM.INF -> Add package specified by USBCAM.INF pnputil.exe -a c:\drivers\*.inf -> Add all packages in c:\drivers\ pnputil.exe -i -a a:\usbcam\USBCAM.INF -> Add and install driver package pnputil.exe -e -> Enumerate all 3rd party packages pnputil.exe -d oem0.inf -> Delete package oem0.inf pnputil.exe -f -d oem0.inf -> Force delete package oem0.inf pnputil.exe -? -> This usage screen - First create a list of installed 3rd party drivers with this command (creates a file on the desktop) pnputil -e >%userprofile%\desktop\pnputil.txt - Now sort thrue the list and see what drivers you wan to remove and use this command pnputil -d oem#.inf Note: most times its necessary to use -f switch to force delete the driver pnputil -f -d oem#.inf Edited September 17, 2010 by ricktendo64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrx Posted September 17, 2010 Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 thanks to this thread. I have been able to recover about 1.5 gigs of space back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodfreyOuwens Posted September 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 thanks to this thread. I have been able to recover about 1.5 gigs of space back. Awesome! :) glad it helped, whichever method you used :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrx Posted September 18, 2010 Report Share Posted September 18, 2010 I used the pnputil way. It work well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodfreyOuwens Posted September 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2010 I used the pnputil way. It work well. cool, I'm gonna have to try that utility one of these days :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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