Device Manager is the primary interface for diagnosing and managing hardware drivers on Windows — a yellow warning triangle there is almost always the starting point for a hardware-related problem.
# List all devices with driver issues Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object Status -ne 'OK' # Get detailed driver info for a specific device Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId "PCI\VEN_10DE&..." -KeyName "DEVPKEY_Device_DriverVersion" # Roll back a driver to the previous version via devmgmt.msc GUI: # right-click device > Properties > Driver tab > Roll Back Driver # (only available if a previous driver package still exists) # Export a full driver list, useful before a clean reinstall Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination "C:\DriverBackup"
Reading the Error Codes
- Code 10 — device cannot start; often a genuinely faulty driver, sometimes hardware
- Code 28 — drivers not installed at all
- Code 43 — Windows stopped the device due to reported problems, common with GPUs after a driver crash
Exporting drivers with Export-WindowsDriver before a clean install is genuinely underused — it saves you from hunting down obscure OEM drivers (fingerprint readers, specific laptop hotkey drivers) that aren’t on Windows Update.