Old PC Drivers Removal ?

[Lindley]

Hi,

Recently upgraded the old desktop hardware and W10 to W11,  all went ok until we found that the Memory Isolation function would not work because of the Drivers below.

We easliy removed the Segger one as it was not a function we used in  ATmel Studio.

However the Intel Drivers, unable to find any program that used them  or could  uninstall them.
Though located in the System32 subfolders, we were not Allowed , even as the Admin,  to delete or rename them.
 
Any help on how to remove them would be much appreciated.

[mwb1100]

Those files are part of the Intel integrated graphics on the computer's chipset.

Before I discuss anything else, I just want to say that I've been running with Memory Integrity off since forever (my work's VPN driver is incompatible) and haven't had any problems.  Maybe I'm just lucky though?  But consider that option before doing any brain surgery on your computer - especially if it's critical for your work (or for any other reason).  I'd rather have a working computer than one that broke because I was trying to speculatively fend off some malware that might never show up.  (In my experience, anti-malware measures often seem as bad as malware itself).

If you go into Device Manager/Display Adapters you should see an Intel-branded adapter. 

Note: make sure you have a backup before doing any of the following because any time you mess with drivers - particularly something as critical as display drivers - you put the system at risk!

If you are actually using another video adapter you might be able to disable that device or even uninstall the drivers from the device property page without impacting your system.

If that actually is the display you're using, I'd probably try updating the display driver.  Windows might be able to find an update itself, but generally you'll need to go to the vendor's website to get updated display drivers.  If there is no update, sometimes reinstalling the same drivers might help fix problems (particularly since there's been a system update since the driver was installed).  As a last resort you could try uninstalling the drivers; after an uninstallation Windows should auto detect the display, which might end up reinstalling the drivers you had (which might still fix your problem, but I doubt it) or would install a plain-jane VGA driver leaving you with an 800x600 UI.  Then again, it could leave you with a broken system (so be prepared with a backup plan).

It's possible that you'd then be able to turn on the Memory Integrity feature and maybe even at that point re-install the actual display driver.  But I'd imagine that reinstalling the same driver version would likely disable the memory integrity feature you worked so hard to enable.

[Lindley]

Hi, 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Yes,  thanks , we do full system backups with Marcium before any such work !

A liitle more of the PC history, originally an older  Intel i3 with its HD4400  inbult graphics which started to give strange problems, ended up fitting a cheap Nvida card to get going.
Updated the mobo, cpu, ram with an i3 12100 and its  UHD 730 graphics and once validated upgraded to W11, and then Defender started showing the problem with the  Memory Integrity section.

The existing Intel programs, as below were removed one at a time, rebooted, but those files still remained when we again checked in the Memory Integrity window.
Reloaded the drivers using Intels program but again no change to those files .

Restored C: to its original state and Uninstalled the driver via Device Manager as you suggested and used the Intel program to reinstall  the latest drivers, but sadly no change.

So still a bit stuck with those files, though like you said ,  we have run for some time without it, just that it would seem good to use it noow we have the extra measures the new hardware and W11 offer.

The last resort will be a  clean full  resintall,  just that would be nice if we could avoid that for a while longer.

[edpalmer42]

You could throw caution to the wind and boot into safe mode.  Maybe you could delete the offending files from there.

[Lindley]

Just tried Safe Mode, in Admin Account, but just the same results as it will not allow the file to be deleted saying  the  SYSTEM permission required,  but going into propeties unable to  turn it on ?
Also able to confirm that the files were from 2017 and part of the old systems HD Graphics, not the new 730 one.

Saw a web comment about deleting the file from the Command line but a bit tricky using dos commands  with so many files in there.

Took a chance and booted the Macrium USB and used its PE Explorer to find the files and it readily deleted them, rebooted and  able to turn Memory Integrity on straight away !


Just such a shame Paramount are not going to offer the new Macrium V9  for free to home users, though we will  continue to use V8 , a system saver in many ways.

[DavidAlfa]

In the device manager, select the device, issue Shift+Delete and click the tick in the window showing afterwards.
This will permanently delete the driver.

[Infraviolet]

Could always live boot a Linux USb and do the deletions which Windows won't allow from there. But deleting Windows files from a Linux system is always going to be a bit risky unless you're absolutely sure that the files must be removed and doing so won't have any weird consequences. maybe betetr to rename the files and pack them in to zip archives, that way you can unzip and return to the old name if you want to undothe changes.