Third-party drivers being moved to a new folder

Mar 31, 2021 13:18 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is preparing for another big change in Windows 10, and this time it’s specifically aimed at third-party drivers installed on the operating system.

More specifically, these are moved to a new location outside of the system32 folder, with the most recent preview build silently making this change for Windows insiders.

Discovered by Albacore, the change is live in Windows 10 build 21343, so there’s a chance it would be part of the 21H2 update coming in the fall of this year.

The next feature update for Windows 10 is 21H1, and it is scheduled to land in April or May.

Where are the third-party drivers located now?

As per Albacore, the third-party drivers are being moved from the current location in system32 in the main Windows folder to the following location:

C:\Windows\OEMDRIVERS While no specifics have been shared on this change because Microsoft has so far remained tight-lipped on the whole thing, it’s likely related to the overall security and stability of the operating system.

The system32 folder is the home of several critical parts of Windows 10, so moving a third-party component outside of it is something that provides users with additional guarantees in case something bad happens.

“Looks like Microsoft wants to isolate 3rd party drivers on Desktop similarly to how they isolate them on 10X. No dedicated partition, but a folder will do. Can confirm that by enabling it ASAP all driver installations are redirected. Here's a fresh 21343 VM with the feature enabled before 1st boot: both inbox printing extras and VMWare tools drivers are now in OEMDRIVERS,” the Windows enthusiasts who discovered the whole thing explains.

It remains to be seen when Microsoft officially introduces this feature, but given it’s already part of 21H2 builds, it should take too long before we hear more about it officially in the Insider program.