Is it necessary to uninstall an existing nVidia graphics card driver before
installing an upgraded version?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #16, I take a look at the way drivers update and why you often need to reboot.
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Uninstall a driver first?
Typically, the answer is “No.” There’s no reason to most of the time.
When you get new drivers for just about anything, regardless of where you
get them from (be it from Windows Update or as a direct download from the
manufacturer), the installation program for the driver should replace the driver
that’s in place. In other words, it should simply upgrade the driver that’s
already there without causing any kind of problem.
Reboot
The worst case (and it’s probably not even that bad of a case, but it’s
something to be aware of) is that there’s a good chance that you’ll need to reboot
your machine as part of that upgrade process. Drivers, and in particular video
drivers, often interact with a system at a relatively low level. When upgrading,
you’re asking the system to change something while it’s currently being
used.
So, normally what happens is the setup program puts everything in place. It
leaves some instructions, and when Windows reboots, it finalizes those last
steps of the upgrade. Once you’re rebooted, you’re running with the upgraded
drivers.
Next from Answercast #16 –
How can I get my volume back louder, like it used to be?
I think the question is a leftover from about 10-12 years ago. Back then, there were many more problems with upgrading software, including drivers. Most tech support was actually rude about informing you that you must uninstall old software before upgrading the new stuff. Quite frankly, even back then, it was not so difficult to write installation code to first check for older software, and uninstall it if necessary. But laziness prevailed; something that seems less common these days. I, myself, am still leery of hard drive encryption after a disaster 20 years ago that wiped out ALL of my data, even though I’m certain that the bugs have been worked out, so old superstitions are hard to break.