PnPUtil Failed to delete driver package

When you try to delete or uninstall a device driver on Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer using the PnPUtil driver manager utility, you may get the error Failed to delete driver package stating One or more devices are presently installed using the specified INF. In this post, we describe the methods to accomplish this task without issues.

You’ll get either of the following full message when you’re unable to delete the driver;

Failed to delete driver package: One or more devices are presently installed using the specified INF.
Deleting the driver package failed: One or more devices are presently installed using the specified INF.

What is PnPUtil?

PnPUtil.exe is a command line utility that allows the system administrator to easily manage the driver, and update or remove the driver from the list of drivers. Using the utility, you can perform the following actions on driver packages:

Add a driver package to the driver store.
Install a driver package on the computer.
Delete a driver package from the driver store.
Enumerate the driver packages that are currently in the driver’s store. Only driver packages that are not in-box packages are listed. An in-box driver package is included in the default installation of Windows or its service pack.

INF files are used by driver packages for installing device drivers for hardware components. An (INF) setup information file is a text file in a driver package containing all the information that device installation components used to install a driver package on a device.

PnPUtil Failed to delete the driver package

If you get the PnPUtil error Failed to delete driver package when you attempt to delete or uninstall a particular device driver on your Windows 11/10 computer, you can use any of the methods listed below to successfully perform the task.

Delete or Uninstall driver in Safe Mode
Run the DevCon.exe command to remove/disable the device using the driver
Use DriverStore Explorer

Let’s see the description of these methods. Before you proceed, we recommend you create a system restore point which you can revert to, if need be, because deleting a driver even if it’s outdated/old can potentially break your PC or affect normal system functionality. You may experience Blue Screen crashes; in any case, you can run SFC/DISM scan.

Read: How to solve Set user settings to driver failed error in Windows

1] Delete or Uninstall driver in Safe Mode

Unlike Clean Boot another diagnostic mode for PCs, Safe Mode will disable the majority of the apps and services that includes non-core services and components, especially the ones that are not required to run Windows and boot your PC. Safe Mode is recommended when there is something wrong with the hardware or drivers, and software-related issues.

This method requires you to boot into Safe Mode and then carry out the driver file delete operation in that environment.

Read: How to Install & Uninstall programs in Safe Mode in Windows

2] Run the DevCon.exe command to remove/disable the device using the driver

DevCon (DevCon.exe) is a command line tool that can display detailed information about devices on computers running Windows. You can also use DevCon to enable, disable, install, configure, and remove devices.

This solution requires you either:

Disable devices by an ID pattern
Disable devices by device instance ID

Once you disable the device using the driver, you can now delete/uninstall the driver. When you disable a device, the device remains physically connected to the computer, but its driver is unloaded from memory and its resources are freed so that the device cannot be used. Similarly, when you remove the device from the device tree and delete the device stack for the device, child devices are removed from the device tree and the drivers that support the device are unloaded. This action is valid only on the local computer and the device driver or any files installed for the device are not deleted – the files remain, and the device is still represented internally as a nonpresent device that can be enumerated.

Read: How to get Windows Installed Driver list using PowerShell

To disable devices by an ID pattern or device instance ID, you first need to find devices by hardware ID pattern or by device instance ID as the case may be. Once you have identified the hardware ID pattern or the device instance ID for the device you want to delete the driver, you can now run the command below to disable the device. Head over to learn.microsoft.com for more.

devcon [/r] disable {* | ID [ID ...] | =class [ID [ID ...]]}

Where;

/r Conditional reboot. Reboots the system after completing an operation only if a reboot is required to make a change effective.
* Represents all devices on the computer.
ID Specifies all or part of a hardware ID, compatible ID, or device instance ID of a device. When specifying multiple IDs, type a space between each ID. IDs that include an ampersand character (&) must be enclosed in quotation marks.

Read: How to get a list of all Device Drivers using Command Prompt

3] Use DriverStore Explorer

DriverStore Explorer is a free and open-source utility that makes it easier to manage the Driver Store on your Windows 11/10 computer. The utility allows you to:

Enumerate or list all the packages staged in the current driver store.
Export the list as CSV, and add a driver package to the driver store (called staging).
Install & add a driver package to the store.
Delete a package from the store (force deletion supported), and a full-fledged GUI supports grouping or sorting on any column and selecting specific columns.

Read: How to safely clean up DriverStore folder in Windows

That’s it!

Also read:

Can you uninstall drivers from the command prompt?

To delete a driver package from the driver store, do one of the following: From the command prompt, use pnputil /delete-driver <example.inf> /uninstall. After the driver package has been removed, it is no longer available to be installed on a device. To reinstall, download the driver again from the source, such as Windows Update. Manually deleting the driver package from the driver store may result in unpredictable behavior.

How do I uninstall drivers that won’t uninstall?

To uninstall drivers that won’t uninstall on your Windows 11/10 PC, you can download and use DriverStore Explorer. Deleting a driver package from the driver store removes associated metadata from the PnP manager’s internal database and deletes related INF files from the system INF directory. Do the following:

Launch DriverStore Explorer as Administrator.
Click on Enumerate.
Find the driver in the list and checkmark to select.
Select Force deletion.
Click on Delete Package.

Read: NVIDIA Graphics driver automatically uninstalls after reboot on Windows

How do I uninstall PnPUtil drivers?

Available starting in Windows 10, version 1607, you can delete the driver package from the driver store.

/uninstall – uninstall the driver package from any devices using it.
/force – delete driver package even when it is in use by devices.
/reboot – reboot the system if needed to complete the operation.

How do I know if my driver is corrupted?

Windows Driver Verifier Utility. Driver Verifier helps you verify all your device drivers and will let you know if any bad or corrupt driver is present. If you identify you have a corrupted network driver on your PC, you can apply the following suggestions to fix the issue:

Restart the computer
Use the Network Troubleshooter
Reinstall Ethernet drivers automatically
Reinstall Ethernet drivers manually
Reset the network adapter
Reset the Winsock

I hope you find the post useful.