Microsoft wants to 'quarantine' all third-party drivers on Windows 10

For example, if you want to use a discrete graphics card, you must have its respective driver installed on your system.

Usually, drivers are installed automatically when you connect your hardware device to the system or check for updates using the Windows Update service. However, sometimes driver problems can lead to serious problems on Windows 10, including security issues.

In Windows 10, all drivers installed on the system (including third-party drivers as well as drivers released by Microsoft) are stored together in DriverStore, under the System32 folder. Microsoft believes that such driver confusion is closely related to the problems and problems that arise on the operating system, and this needs to be changed.

Since Windows Vista, Microsoft used the 'DriverStore' folder to store all the drivers on the system, and it only included a 'trusted' collection of first-party (Microsoft) and third-party drivers. .

With Windows 10's new Sun Valley update, however, Microsoft is planning to move third-party drivers outside of the System32 folder. After the next big feature update, the third party driver on the system will be stored in a brand new folder called 'OEMDRIVERS' (C: WindowsOEMDRIVERS), instead of being stored with Microsoft's driver in DriverStore. (C: WindowsSystem32) as before.

Of course, Windows will still verify the digital signature of the third driver before copying the corresponding package into the new 'OEMDRIVERS' folder.

As shown in the screenshot above, this basic change is currently being tested in preview builds, but it can only be tested when you perform a Windows in-place upgrade. 10 21H2 versions on virtual machines.

Like Windows 10X, the ability to support "OEM DRIVERS" allows the operating system to be completely isolated from third-party drivers, thereby helping to limit system conflicts and especially security. .

Besides, isolating third-party drivers into a separate folder on the system is, in theory, also expected to help optimize the process of updating these drivers. Everything will be smoother, faster and more efficient.

Kareem Winters

Update 07 April 2021