How To Roll Back a Bad Driver

Updating your machine’s drivers keeps the system current on bug fixes and support for new features. It can also break things that weren’t broken, however, so if you notice that your PC is crashing or behaving strangely after applying a new patch, you should revert to an older version and see if that fixes the problem. Fortunately, whether you install new drivers manually (via download from a manufacturer’s Website) or through Windows Update, you can revert to an older version fairly easily.

1. Open the Device Manager control panel.
2. Browse to the device whose driver you want to roll back. Double-click the device in question.
3. On the properties screen, click the Driver tab, then click Roll Back Driver and follow the wizard to revert to the previously loaded driver. A restart will be required.

If the option is grayed out, an older driver is not available. If you know that the driver has been updated, you may be able to recover it by using Windows’ System Restore function, which will also undo driver installations.

Other common problems with Windows PCs can also be solved with 5-minute fixes.