Windows list drivers in use

Versions History

• Version 1.05:
  • Added ‘Open In RegEdit’ option, which opens the Registry key of the driver in RegEdit.
• Version 1.01:
  • Added secondary sorting support: You can now get a secondary sorting, by holding down the shift key while clicking the column header. Be aware that you only have to hold down the shift key when clicking the second/third/fourth column. To sort the first column you should not hold down the Shift key.
  • Fixed to display local date/time values according to daylight saving time settings.
• Version 1.00 — First release.

Start Using InstalledDriversList

After running it, the main window of InstalledDriversList displays the list of all drivers installed on your system. You can select one or more items (or select all items with Ctrl+A), and then copy them to the clipboard (Ctrl+C) and paste them into Excel or other spreadsheet application. You can also use the ‘Save Selected Items’ option (Ctrl+S) to export the selected items into csv/tab-delimited/xml/html file.

Meaning of green/yellow/red icons

• Green Icon — The driver is running on Windows kernel.
• Yellow Icon — The driver is not running on Windows kernel.
• Red Icon — The driver is not running on Windows kernel, but it should be loaded automatically when Windows starts. When you see a red icon, it’s possible that something is wrong with the driver. Be aware that on Windows 8, there are 2 drivers of the operating system that are normally displayed with red icon.

Command-Line Options

/stext	Save the installed drivers list into a regular text file.
/stab	Save the installed drivers list into a tab-delimited text file.
/scomma	Save the installed drivers list into a comma-delimited text file (csv).
/stabular	Save the installed drivers list into a tabular text file.
/shtml	Save the installed drivers list into HTML file (Horizontal).
/sverhtml	Save the installed drivers list into HTML file (Vertical).
/sxml	Save the installed drivers list into XML file.
/sort	This command-line option can be used with other save options for sorting by the desired column. If you don’t specify this option, the list is sorted according to the last sort that you made from the user interface. The parameter can specify the column index (0 for the first column, 1 for the second column, and so on) or the name of the column, like «Display Name» and «Driver Name». You can specify the ‘

‘ prefix character (e.g: «

Visit Time») if you want to sort in descending order. You can put multiple /sort in the command-line if you want to sort by multiple columns.

Windows Compatible Products List

The Windows Compatible Products List is a comprehensive list of certified devices and systems. The Windows Compatible Products list has the following features and restrictions:

• You can find devices and systems by filtering the list or by running a search for a specific product name.
• You can search across all certified devices and systems for the entire catalog.
• If you need an OEM system report for RFPs, you can search for the product/marketing name and receive a verification report, which you can download.
• The Compatible Products List displays Declarative & Universal status for all Device Classes.

System search does not support the D & U status field. Therefore, you must set the D & U Status search field dropdown to All to see system results.

Searching for Marketing and Product names for systems or devices

If you search using the Marketing/Product Name box, the Compatible Products List returns matches in the product name, submission name, and marketing name fields. Consider these:

• Limit your search to plain text, without quotes or wildcards.
• Any spaces between words are treated as AND expressions.
• Do not use any special characters or search-limiting terms. For example, do not use (OR, AND, ””, *, ?, etc.).

Searching for a Company Name

Limit your searches to plain text, without quotes or wildcards. For example, do not use (OR, AND, ””, *, ?, etc.).

The search function will auto-complete results after you type five letters.

You may find that some companies are listed twice. This is a result of merging the previous database with Hardware Dev Center. Each entry is different, so it’s best to search using the Marketing/Product Name field.

How Windows selects a driver for a device

When a device is attached, Windows needs to find a corresponding device driver to install.

In Windows 10, this matching process happens in two phases. First, Windows 10 installs the best matching driver in the driver store, allowing the device to begin operation quickly. After that driver is installed, Windows 10 also:

• Downloads any matching driver packages from Windows Update and puts them in the driver store.
• Searches for driver packages that were preloaded in the locations specified by the DevicePath registry value. The DevicePath registry value is located under the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion . By default, the DevicePath value specifies the %SystemRoot%\INF directory.

If Windows 10 finds a better matching driver package in those locations than was initially installed, Windows replaces the driver it installed from the driver store with the better match.

In Windows versions before Windows 8, the driver matching process looks only in DevicePath, if one is specified, and defaults to Windows Update otherwise.

The following table provides a quick summary of the information above:

Search phase	Windows 7 match order	Windows 8, Windows 10 match order
Before a driver is installed	DevicePath; Windows Update; Driver store	Driver store
After initial driver is selected	Not applicable	DevicePath; Windows Update

In Windows 10, version 1709 and greater, Windows offers the best matching driver, which is not necessarily the most recent. The driver selection process considers hardware ID, date/version, and critical/automatic/optional category. Windows prioritizes critical or automatic drivers highest. If a matching driver is not found, WU looks next for optional drivers. As a result, an older critical driver of otherwise equal value takes precedence over a newer optional driver.

Starting with Windows 10, version 2004, Windows automatically offers only the best automatic/critical matching driver, searching both the computer and Windows Update. To see matching drivers in the optional category, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View optional updates > Driver updates. Windows still uses the same criteria to rank and select a driver.

Free software to list installed Drivers on Windows 10

Device Drivers in Windows 10 make sure all the connected hardware work fine when used by the operating system. While Windows 10 offers Device Manager to locate and list all the device driver details, it’s too cumbersome and time taking. In this post, we have listed some free software to list installed Drivers on Windows 10/8/7.

Software to list installed Drivers on Windows 10

This list of software to list installed Drivers is entirely free so that you can choose any of them. I would suggest to read about each of them and use what works best for you.

1. ServiWin
2. DriverView
3. DriverStoreExplorer
4. NirSoft InstalledDriversList
5. PowerShell method
6. DevCon command-line tool
7. Driverquery command

If you need to do it often, make sure to save the list of drivers. In the future, if you need to find which driver has been updated or recently installed, it will be easy to find, especially the driver version number.

1] ServiWin

If you are looking for software which can not only make a list of all the drivers, but also quickly stop, start, restart, pause, and more, then ServiWin is what you need. The list of drivers can be saved as an HTML report of installed services/drivers in your default browser.

2] DriverView

DriverView is a free software from NirSoft, which displays a list of all device drivers available on Windows. You can view information like address of the driver, description, version, product name, company that created the driver, and more.

3] DriverStoreExplorer

This one tops our list of software because of its user interface, which is well done. Not only it lists the drivers on Windows 10, but it can also load drives from a folder that contains drives. The later is also called an offline driver store, which comes in handy to analyze drivers before they are installed.

Using this can add drivers to your offline store, and use it elsewhere. When it comes to exporting, it can export the list in CSV with grouping and sorting. While in the software, you can rearrange columns, so post exporting, you can view the columns you require first. You can download it from Github

4] NirSoft InstalledDriversList

Nirsoft has a lot of software for drivers, but this comes with much better features when it comes to exporting the list of drivers. You can export Driver Name, Display Name, Description, Startup Type, Driver type, Driver Group, Filename, Version, and more.

The icons next to the driver names tell you the status; you can open registry entries directly from here, and sort the list using secondary sorting support as well. You can download it from NirSoft

5] PowerShell method to get driver list

PowerShell is an incredible part of Windows, which comes with a lot of commands. One such command is Get-WindowsDriver. It can create a list of installed drivers for you. The details include Class Name, Boot Critical status, and more. You can use PowerShell to get the drivers list.

6] DevCon command-line tool

DevCon is a free command-line utility that not only can list drivers but also lets you manage them. You can get a brief list of all names, search for any hardware changes, find devices even if they are not currently online, and so on.

7] Driverquery command

Driverquery is an in-built command line, too, which list of drivers installed on the system. It will show the module name of the driver, along with the display name, driver type, and link date.

We hope this list offered you a lot of options to export a list of drivers installed on Windows 10 PC. Make sure to export the drivers it in a place where you don’t lose it. Most of the software are standalone tools.

Date: November 2, 2019 Tags: Drivers

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Ashish is a veteran Windows, and Xbox user who excels in writing tips, tricks, and features on it to improve your day to day experience with your devices.

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

Device Drivers are one of the main reasons why your computer is running at the optimal performance today; they can also be one of the reasons why your computer is running slowly. When things are running well, computer users might want to view a list of the drivers that are operational. This can be a difficult process, which is why we are going to talk about how to view a list of all device drivers via the Command Prompt by using the driverquery command.

First we need to kick start the Command Prompt app, and for this to happen, users may open the WinX menu in Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 and click on Command Prompt. Another way of doing it is to press the Windows Key along with R, and then type CMD in the text box. Hit enter and watch as the Command Prompt launches.

Generate a list of Drivers using driverquery command

In the Command Prompt, enter the command driverquery . This should bring up a list of drivers installed on the system. Depending on the number of drivers installed, it may take a while for the screen to fully populate. A relatively fast computer should perform these tasks within just a few seconds after the user hits the enter button.

Using the driverquery command will show the module name of the driver, along with the display name, driver type, and link date. However, that is not all, because it is possible to generate more information about these drivers just by using a different parameter.

Type driverquery /v to generate the list similar to the one below:

To generate an even more detailed list, use driverquery /FO list /v .

It shows a lot more, including information on whether or not a driver is running. We understand that this one should be more adequate for advanced users, so we would recommend starting things off with driverquery /FO list /v instead of driverquery .

While using the Command Prompt removes the need for installing another app, some users might not feel right at home, so we suggest using an app called DriverView. It does almost everything driverquery does and more. It is a powerful app, and as such, we recommend it to novices since it is more straightforward than using the Command Prompt.

Date: July 30, 2018 Tags: CMD, Drivers

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Vamien McKalin possesses the awesome power of walking on water like a boss. He’s also a person who enjoys writing about technology, comics, video games, and anything related to the geek world.