If you are switching video cards, and you want to wipe out any trace of your old video card drivers, or you find your game is not performing well on your current graphics card and you are having graphical issues or finding there are some weird glitches in-game, it may be beneficial to perform a clean install of your graphics drivers. For this, you are going to need to download software called DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and follow the steps below!
It is worth noting that if you use NVIDIA GeForce Experience you can update your drivers and perform a clean install using this however if you'd like to do it manually, these steps will help.
How do I perform a clean install using DDU?
- Firstly, you will need to click right here in order to download the latest version of DDU.
- Next, depending on what type of video card you have, whether it's an AMD or NVIDIA card, you should download the most recent drivers for the GPU you will be reinstalling whether this is the same GPU as you currently have or a new one - this will be important later.
- To download the latest NVIDIA drivers, you can go here.
- To download the latest AMD drivers, please find them here. - Once DDU is downloaded onto your desktop, double-click the icon and select Run
- Select Extract
- Once this has finished extracting, from your desktop go to your search bar and search for Network Connections and select the result
- Then right-click each of your network adaptors and select Disable
Note: if you are using a Bluetooth keyboard, don't disable this as you will need your keyboard and mouse to continue. - Next you will click the Windows icon in the bottom-left of your screen and whilst holding your SHIFT key, click Restart - let go of the SHIFT key after you get the "Please wait" message
- You will then be given options to choose from, select Troubleshoot
- Then Advanced Options > Start-up Settings
- Then select Restart
- Once your PC restarts, you will be given more options, please press your number 4 key or select number 4 from the list and this should boot you into Safe Mode
- Now you will open the DDU folder that was extracted and open the application (at the time of this article it was named DDU v18.0.4.2)
- Select Run
- Then Extract again
- Open the new extraction folder and select the Display Driver Uninstaller application
- If this is the first time using DDU, you will receive a pop-up saying so; please click OK
- Then you will get another pop-up with a list of options for you to select. Please check the following boxes depending on which brand on GPU you are using:
- Then select Close
- From the drop-down menus on the right-hand side, click -Select device type- and choose GPU
- Then in the second drop-down menu, select the brand of the GPU you are currently using on your system: NVIDIA, AMD or Intel
- If you are clean installing the same graphics card you were using before, select Clean and restart
- If you are doing a clean uninstall and switching to a new graphics card, select Clean and shutdown
- If you selected Clean and shutdown, your PC will now shut down and you should install your new graphics card following the manufacturer's guidelines during this time, then restart your PC
- If you selected Clean and restart, your PC will now reboot itself - please wait for it to turn back on
Now, you will need to install the graphics card drivers that were downloaded for your GPU at the beginning of this process, either the Radeon AMD or NVIDIA depending on which card you are using
We will be explaining how to do these steps on a NVIDIA card, but the steps for AMD are very similar -
- If you receive a pop-up here, please click Run
- You should receive a similar notification to this:
Select Yes - To extract the files, select OK
- At this stage the NVIDIA graphics driver will appear, you should select NVIDIA Graphics Drive and GeForce Experience, then select Agree and Continue
- Select Custom (Advanced) under Installation Options and then Next
- Make sure the small box next to Perform a clean installation is checked
Then select Next - NVIDIA will now install your drivers, this may take some time so please leave the PC to do this for as long as it needs.
- Once this has been completed, please Restart your PC
- After your PC reboots, you are going to need to enable your Network Connections again: go to your search bar and search for Network Connections and select the result, then right-click each of your network adaptors and select Enable
- If you are running an NVIDIA card, you will now need to open GeForce Experience and sign back in to get access to the full control panel. AMD will not require you to sign in to anything but it is worth downloading the applicable software and re-configuring your settings.
For a more visual guide of these steps, we recommend clicking here and watching this video.