Hi everyone,

I made the huge misstake of installing a software called AirDisplay on my Windows 8.1 system. It's supposed to let you use a tablet as a second monitor and therefore installs some drivers etc. It's incompatible with Windows 10, and therefore I cannot upgrade so I want to get rid of it. The problem is that the uninstall does not actually remove the drivers, only the control software.

Using the device manager, I can find it and disable and/or uninstall the display driver, but even then it keeps the fake device in the list. I tried deleting the driver files manually in safe mode, but then windows bluescreens on boot and the only way to get it booting again seems to be restore point which restores the driver. Even in safe mode, I cannot delete the registry keys referencing these driver files.

I installed it a long time ago and can't revert to some restore point before that.

Any ideas?

You can try reinstalling it, maybe they fixed the uninstall functionality in the new version.

Using the device manager, I can find it and disable and/or uninstall the display driver, but even then it keeps the fake device in the list. I tried deleting the driver files manually in safe mode, but then windows bluescreens on boot and the only way to get it booting again seems to be restore point which restores the driver. Even in safe mode, I cannot delete the registry keys referencing these driver files.

You can try reinstalling it, maybe they fixed the uninstall functionality in the new version.

Tried it, but no, they haven't fixed it. :(

Have you tried creating a Windows repair disc, deleting the bad drivers so it causes Windows to bluescreen, then using the repair disc to repair the drivers?

Or, deleting the bad drivers, and having the good drivers ready to go to immediately replace them?
Or deleting the bad drivers, and then doing a Windows self-repair scan before shutting down?

Have you already tried googling for other users who have used that software and suffered that problem?

Is leaving the disabled driver in the device manager list such a bad thing?

Leaving the disabled driver in the device manager still prevents me from upgrading to Windows 10, because it still thinks I have an incompatible monitor. What I need to figure out is how to get rid of that fake device so that I don't need a driver for it in the first place.

I have seen other users having the same problem, but no solution so far. I've found "guides" on how to remove it, but they appear generated and provide some standard tips, ie remove the files from the program files dir, then open regedit and remove everything related under HKLM/Software/.. etc, and then they recommend some program to help you.

I thought about something like Driver Cleaner or similar, but it and similar programs appear to have specific lists of drivers they support, usually just NVidia and AMD/ATI drivers.

You can try reinstalling it, maybe they fixed the uninstall functionality in the new version.

Tried it, but no, they haven't fixed it.

Have you tried creating a Windows repair disc, deleting the bad drivers so it causes Windows to bluescreen, then using the repair disc to repair the drivers?

Or, deleting the bad drivers, and having the good drivers ready to go to immediately replace them?
Or deleting the bad drivers, and then doing a Windows self-repair scan before shutting down?

Have you already tried googling for other users who have used that software and suffered that problem?

Is leaving the disabled driver in the device manager list such a bad thing?

Leaving the disabled driver in the device manager still prevents me from upgrading to Windows 10, because it still thinks I have an incompatible monitor. What I need to figure out is how to get rid of that fake device so that I don't need a driver for it in the first place.

I have seen other users having the same problem, but no solution so far. I've found "guides" on how to remove it, but they appear generated and provide some standard tips, ie remove the files from the program files dir, then open regedit and remove everything related under HKLM/Software/.. etc, and then they recommend some program to help you.

I thought about something like Driver Cleaner or similar, but it and similar programs appear to have specific lists of drivers they support, usually just NVidia and AMD/ATI drivers.

You need to figure out what driver was installed "before" you did all that and uninstall (not through uninstaller but directly from the device manager page) the current driver and when selecting a new one, select the one you used before.

If you've already registered for Win10 I think you can do a clean reinstall, which is probably a better idea.

I read it's possible to make a boot-USB that boots into Windows XP or something that can edit the registry on your HD.. but I never tried it. This site talks about it: https://www.technibble.com/how-to-disable-automatic-restart-for-bsod-if-you-are-unable-to-get-into-windows/

What exactly does the blue-screen say?

Could be that you forget to delete one driver-file that blue-screens when the main driver is gone.

If you've already registered for Win10 I think you can do a clean reinstall, which is probably a better idea.

I read it's possible to make a boot-USB that boots into Windows XP or something that can edit the registry on your HD.. but I never tried it. This site talks about it: https://www.technibble.com/how-to-disable-automatic-restart-for-bsod-if-you-are-unable-to-get-into-windows/

What exactly does the blue-screen say?

Could be that you forget to delete one driver-file that blue-screens when the main driver is gone.

It says it can't find the boot drive or similar. One of the driver files is called AVPCIFilter, I'm guessing it's some form of hook that is registered as required or even replace-and-forward.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/windows-10-not-compatible-with-microsoft-air/feb7a11d-6384-4d94-a997-7715e8f9ab94?page=2&auth=1

Also Googling 'avpcifilter delete' and similar for air display gives several results with various registry cleaners etc.

Theoretically if you delete (or better change extension) INF driver (which is probably now resides at Windows/Inf as OemXX.inf) and driver files (probably @ System32/Drivers/) you don't get driver back when deleted.

And in case Windows 8 refuses to boot when you delete driver files, you may try using beep.sys as decoy whatever.sys file instead by copying. (I was using this trick when uninstalling DeepFreeze manually)

Have you tried Revo uninstaller?

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html