How to add a driver to the DriverStore

All drivers are stored in the so called DriverStore, which is located under %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\DriverStore.

With the built-in command line tool pnputil you can add or remove drivers.

How does it work?

  1. Start an elevated command prompt (Start, type CMD, hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter)
  2. Adding a driver:
    • Pnputil.exe -a c:\LOCATION_OF_DRIVER\DRIVER_NAME.inf
      The location can be either local or remote
    • Pnputil.exe -a C:\LOCATION_OF_DRIVER\*.inf
      Copy all drivers from that folder
  3. Deleting a driver:
    • Pnputil.exe -d DRIVER_NAME.inf
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