APRIL 2020 PCWorld 137express-installing drivers can cause
issues sometimes. Performing a
clean install starts over from scratch,
potentially eradicating
conflicts that can
manifest as bugs or performance
issues. I even do it every now and
again on my personal rig, just for
general system health.
“Often, many problems can be
resolved with a clean installation of our driver,”
AMD’s Warren Eng said in the company’s post.
“In order to perform a clean installation, you
must select the ‘Factory Reset’ option at the
beginning of the installation process. Once this
is selected, old instances of the driver will be
removed, and the uninstaller will restart your
system before the new driver installation
begins.” Easy-peasy.
If you have a GeForce graphics card,
resetting the drivers takes a slightly different
(but still simple) process. Start the installation
process, click Custom install, and make sure
to check the Perform A Clean Installation
box. From there, complete the task normally.
As Nvidia’s checkbox warns, performing a
clean driver install blasts away your previous
version of the software, which means that all
settings will be returned to their default. The
same goes for AMD’s clean installation
process, which it dubs “Factory reset.” That
could be a headache if you heavily customize
your graphics card’s software, but worthwhile
if you’re suffering from software issues. If
you’ve tinkered extensively, you might want to
jot down your altered settings before initiating
the process, so you can get everything back
the way you want it more easily afterward.
Performing a clean install has solved
problems we’ve seen more times than not,
especially for Radeon graphics cards. But
sometimes, even that isn’t enough. Seriously:
Graphics drivers sink their hooks deep, and
sometimes the default clean installation
options misses things. If you’re still having
troubles after performing a clean installation
using Radeon Software or GeForce
Experience, give the superb Display Driver
Uninstaller software (go.pcworld.com/dsdr)—
simply called DDU by enthusiasts—a whirl.
“Display Driver Uninstaller is a driver
removal utility that can help you completely
uninstall AMD/Nvidia graphics card drivers
and packages from your system, without
leaving leftovers behind (including registry
keys, folders and files, driver store),” the
description reads. The free, long-established
program is a must-use tool in our ownHow to factory-reset (clean install) Radeon graphics drivers.