Quote:
Originally Posted by
invena 
I am in total agreement with you. The clean install is not identical to driver sweeper but it is geared at the same goal; Removing the old drivers before installing the new ones opposed to updating the drivers and leaving old entities behind. Files that can only be accessed in safe mode are not removed with the clean install method, and driver sweeper can remove these. However, for 98% of people the clean install method works flawlessly, which is why I would only reccomend the driver sweeper methodology to someone encountering issues with old drivers.
Sent from my iPhone.
I just discovered that it does much less than we both thought. This is what it says in the installer underneath the "Perform a clean installation" option:
"A clean installation restores all NVIDIA settings to the default value and removes any profiles you have created."
It sounds to me like it just deletes something from the Registry and maybe also even a few files that do not get deleted upon a normal Uninstall. I mean, Settings for things like this are often saved in the Registry, and profiles could be saved in the form of files. Or, all of this could just be a few things in Registry for both the Settings and any custom profiles that we created.
Now, Driver Sweeper removes absolutely everything; it leaves no 'evidence' behind. Whatever the installation puts on a computer, Driver Sweeper gets rid of it (all of it). It sounds to me like the "Perform a clean installation" option is not doing this at all, but instead is more or less letting us say, "I do not want to save my old settings and profiles. Instead, I want to start fresh." (just like how when MSI Afterburner is uninstalled, it firsts asks if we want to keep our settings).
Still, my main reason for recommending the use of Driver Sweeper is peace of mind. Plus, it can save time from having to do it all over again if a simple uninstall/reinstall didn't solve whatever the issue may be.
Edited by TwoCables - 6/27/12 at 9:35am
