Fixing Windows OS driver issues and related crashes

🧰 Built-in Windows Tools

1. Device Manager

• How to open: Press Win + X → select Device Manager.

• Purpose: Shows all installed hardware and their drivers.

• What you can do:

  • Look for yellow triangle ⚠️ → indicates problems.

  • Right-click device → Update / Disable / Uninstall driver.

  • View driver details (Driver tab > “Driver Details”).

2. Event Viewer

• How to open: Press Win + R → type eventvwr.msc.

• Check: Windows Logs → System for driver-related errors (e.g., Event ID 1001, 7026, 219).

• Useful to catch failing drivers during boot or device enumeration.

3. Reliability Monitor

• How to open: Type Reliability Monitor in Start Menu.

• Shows driver crashes and hardware failures over time.

4. Driver Verifier (Advanced)

• How to run: verifier in Run dialog (Win + R).

• Stress-tests and monitors driver behavior.

• ⚠️ Use with caution — can cause BSOD if a faulty driver is found (used by IT pros for debugging).

🧰 Third-Party Tools

5. Autoruns (Microsoft Sysinternals)

• URL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

• Shows all drivers and services that auto-load at startup.

• Useful for identifying suspicious or unneeded drivers.

6. DriverStore Explorer (Rapr)

• URL: https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer

• Allows safe inspection and removal of old or duplicate drivers from Windows Driver Store (C:WindowsSystem32DriverStore).

• Great for cleaning up unused NVIDIA/AMD/USB drivers.

7. BlueScreenView (NirSoft)

• URL: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

• Analyzes BSOD crash dumps and shows which driver caused the crash.

8. WhoCrashed

• URL: https://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

• Analyzes dump files to identify faulty drivers causing system crashes.

✅ Best Practices

• Always create a System Restore Point before removing drivers.

• Keep chipset, graphics, network, and storage drivers from OEM or hardware vendor sites, not from third-party “driver updater” tools.

  If unsure, run in CMD (admin rights needed):

  sfc /scannow


  and

  dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth


  to check system integrity before deep driver modifications.