How do I know the reason for the failure of uninstalling my windows driver?

Question

my windows driver is based on winio(https://github.com/starofrainnight/winio) to directly access I/O ports and physical memory. Run the command below to install my windows driver:

rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\mydriver.inf

Run the command below and I can see my windows driver, which means that the installation was successful:

driverquery

I tried to run the command below to uninstall my windows driver. However, when I run driverquery, it still shows my windows driver. How do I know why the uninstallation failed?

rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultUninstall 132 C:\mydriver.inf

Answer 1

Hello 明德 林,

The uninstallation of your Windows driver might have failed due to a few reasons:

The driver could still be active during the uninstallation process, which might cause the uninstall program to hang.

If the driver installer also installed a third-party application, uninstalling the driver through the Device Manager might not remove the associated files or applications.

Here are some steps you can try to resolve this issue:

Disable the device: You can do this through the Device Manager.

Disconnect and shutdown: Disconnect the device from the system and shut down the computer. There’s a chance that the existing driver, even though it’s disabled, might interfere with the shutdown process.

Restart and uninstall: After shutting down, restart your computer and try uninstalling the drivers again.

If you’ve installed a third-party driver via a third-party installation, it’s recommended to use Add and Remove programs to uninstall third-party driver packages.

Please remember to create a system restore point before making any changes to your system. This way, you can revert your system back to the previous state if something goes wrong.

Best Regards,

Wesley Li

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