Is there a way for NTLite to collect all my active drivers in one folder?

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pmikep

Active Member
So, let's say that I want to do a bare metal (re)install of Win10 on a Dell. And let's say that my Dell is already running Win10 and that, over the years, I have already manually downloaded and installed the latest drivers. (Some that were "forced" - like forcing Windows to use Intel's NVME driver for my WDBlue NVME.)

When I run a Live version of NTLite, NTLite seems to know what hardware I have. Can it then collect all the active drivers for my hardware and put them in a folder (similar to the Upload folder) so that when I work offline on a fresh Windows wim, I can point NTLite to this folder so that NTLite will automatically integrate all my drivers in a new wim? Like "capturing" active drivers?

I know that I could trudge through my Downloads folder and manually add drivers to NTLite. (Although some of those installers might not work with NTLite here. Like my Hauppauge USB-TV stick? Or sometimes these installers ask you questions.) I am looking for an easier (lazier) way to capture the drivers that are currently in use in a Live Windows and slipping those into a wim.

Alternatively, if there was a way to do a "pseudo-clean" Host Refresh, where, say, NTLite let Windows keep my drivers but replaced everything else with a fresh (but Lite'd) Registry), that would work too. (Although that might be difficult, since I will often see nVidia and stuff in Services, implying that their installers touched the Registry.)

Or, as I think about it, is that what Windows already does when you do a Host Refresh but don't keep anything? (I have assumed that it wipes everything out and installs Windows from scratch. But maybe it keeps current drivers?)
 
You can import host drivers using one click on drivers page. Then exclude unused and thats it.
1606173115743.png


If you really want to export installed drivers, load C:\Windows a goto Components page into drivers section. Installed drivers that are not delivered as Windows build-in components are marked as Exportable and can be exported into folder for future use.

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Excellent. Thanks, exactly what I was looking for. (Sorry to forum members that I couldn't find the answer via a Search or a Guide.)
 
FWIW, I went back in to NTLite Live and reviewed the Hardware list stuff.

Mine was a conceptual problem. I knew about the Hardware List. But I thought that it was only a List of Hardware. (As they appear on the right side of the column.)

The fact that it captured drivers too wasn't obvious to me, even though were in the driver "tab" of the program.

(So perhaps call it "Hardware Driver List"?)
 
For nuhi when he runs out of things to do: I had updated my drivers recently. But there's no indication of that in NT Lite Live.

Fortunately I remembered to update (i.e., Export) my hardware list, since we've been discussing it here.

But I am wondering if NTLite could compare the current list in the Live Hardware page with the last saved list with the same Desktop name stored in NTLite's directory (if there is such a list) and color-code the drivers that changed. Perhaps in blue? Kinda like the way that the Update page indicates when updates have changed/are missing?

As a side issue, I wonder if NTLite is smart enough to capture Nvidia's GPU drivers, which seem to have a rather large installer.
 
This is harder - or perhaps "more tedious" - than I expected.

I didn't follow G. King's instructions above correctly. Specifically, I didn't use the "Export drivers" feature.

But surely there must be a way for NTLite to gather up all the Exportable drivers in one click and save them for future use? Because I have about 40 "exportable" drivers that I would have to find manually.

So here's what happened tonight.

I installed a clean Windows 20H2 on my Dell Box.

My Dell has drivers unique to Dell that came preinstalled. And, besides, that, over the past year, I've manually found and installed more current drivers than the ones that came with the Dell. (Like the Intel chipset inf update, Intel NVME driver, etc.)

So before I made a wim for the clean install, I loaded my current running Win10 in NTLite Live.

From there I went to the Drivers page, and I exported my Live drivers to a Hardware List.

Then, when I loaded the clean iso for a clean install of Windows, I imported my Hardware List.

They showed up in NTLite on the driver page and I thought, "Cool!"

I thought I was being especially clever when I told NTLite to integrate the drivers into the pre-boot environment too.

I thought that this would be enough for my clean install of Windows to find the exportable drivers and load them during the install so that everything would be up and running after setup completed.

But, no. They did NOT install in the clean Windows 10 installation.

Looking at it now, I see why.

The Hardware list is simply an XML file. It has vendor names, and mentions inf files.

But the List doesn't actually "capture" the sys files (and maybe dlls) that my drivers need.

So now I see that I can export the Exportable drivers to a folder somewhere on my computer. IF I am in Components > Drivers and sift through the long list to find Exportables.

But I'm not sure what to do with them after that for a clean Windows install to see them. Do I put them in a folder in NTLite, like the $OEM, so that a clean install of Windows will see them and load them when needed during install? Or after the install is finished do I have to go to this folder and manually install the drivers?

Hoping for an easier way.
 
Use pnputil or PowerShell, to export your 3rd-party drivers to a folder (W10 or later):
Code: 
pnputil /export-driver * D:\Drivers

powershell -nop -ep bypass -C "Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination D:\Drivers"
 
Is it possible to deactivate the PC host drivers to generalize an ISO? sorry my English is awful I'm French
I have the free version (maybe that comes from there)
all the top of the drivers tabs are grayed out
 

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Is it possible to deactivate the PC host drivers to generalize an ISO? sorry my English is awful I'm French
I have the free version (maybe that comes from there)
all the top of the drivers tabs are grayed out
 

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When you don't have any image loaded (ISO or live system), this menu bar will be grayed out.
 
red63100 said:
Is it possible to deactivate the PC host drivers to generalize an ISO? sorry my English is awful I'm French
I have the free version (maybe that comes from there)
all the top of the drivers tabs are grayed out
Click to expand...
Hardware Checklist (Liste du matériel) is displaying the host PC's drivers for reference, to help you check if the loaded image has the same drivers as this PC. You can ignore this list if you are making a general image for other PC's.

Every official ISO will include the same default drivers. If you want to remove unwanted drivers, uncheck them in Components.

NTLite will never add the host PC's drivers, unless you click on Import Host.
 
garlin said:
Hardware Checklist (Liste du matériel) is displaying the host PC's drivers for reference, to help you check if the loaded image has the same drivers as this PC. You can ignore this list if you are making a general image for other PC's.

Every official ISO will include the same default drivers. If you want to remove unwanted drivers, uncheck them in Components.

NTLite will never add the host PC's drivers, unless you click on Import Host.
Click to expand...
thank you very much, it must come from my free version, I will take the business version I will be calm
 
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