Windows 10: Change graphics driver using command prompt without safe mode

As the devil would have it, the graphics card from my PC AMD FirePro V4900 died on Friday.
On Monday I was able to install a new one AMD Radeon Pro WX3100 into the computer.

Since I have a dual-boot system Windows 7 and Windows 10 selectable via bootloader, I fixed Win7 first. That was no problem. Win7 booted in safe mode, so I uninstalled the old graphics card drivers as usual, rebooted as usual with the native VGA driver, which even allowed me to set the full monitor resolution of 1920x1200 and then I installed the new driver for the Radeon Pro. Everything went as it should, if you know your way around a computer.

But Windows 10 is making things harder. Due to the wrong graphics card driver, it always crashes with a Bluescreen of Death BSOD during booting. Exactly the same as if the defective graphics card was still inside. Unfortunately, I can't reach the option to uninstall the old graphics card driver that caused the problem.

No matter which of the 8 boot options I choose logging, low resolution startup, safe mode, etc. it always comes up with the same BSOD "critical process died".
But without safe mode I can't uninstall the old drivers normally!
I have already built a very fresh Win10 bootstick Rel. 1909 and started the automatic repair mode with it. It worked a little bit on the Win10 partition, but didn't change anything noticeably.

Apart from the fact that Win10 is obviously a step backwards as far as the driver model is concerned the Win7 BSOD had clearly stated atikmpag.sys as a boot problem, Win10 was just a general "critical process died", I can't be the only one who has the simple problem that after 4 years the graphics adapter died and had to be replaced and therefore one had no chance to uninstall the old drivers before installing the new card.

What I need now is a way to disable the old drivers so that Win10 boots with the native VGA driver instead and I can then uninstall the old drivers cleanly in the next step.

I googled the heck out of the topic, but all the instructions and YouTube solution videos assume that you can at least boot into safe mode.

I would be really grateful for a professional tip. The most realistic solution is probably something along the lines of:

Go to the command prompt with the Rescuestick, rename in C:\Windows\system32\... the file XYZ or mount the registry and change the entry XY from A to B in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\something. Unfortunately I just don't know how to specifically disable the old driver and/or make the generic VGA driver the boss.

Restoring an old backup which I have doesn't help me either, because then I still have the wrong drivers in it. It is really absurd.

I found a manual that allows access to the system partition from the USB stick:

DISM

but already the input of
dism /image:c:\ /get-driverinfo

results in the following:
-------------------------------------
"Error: 2"
Error during initialization
-------------------------------------

According to dism.log, this is probably because DISM can't determine the version number of my Windows 10 partition:

-------------------------------------
DISM OS Provider: PID=2020 TID=940 "Failed to open the key Microsoft\\\Windows NT\\\CurrentVersion. - CDISMOSServiceManager:: get_OSVersionhr:0x0070002

DISM OS Provider: PID=2020 TID=940 Failed trying to determine the OS version. HRESULT=0x0070002 - CDISMOSServiceManager:: get_OSVersion
-------------------------------------

Somehow I seem to have hit the jackpot here. Can someone please either get DISM working for me or tell me how I can precisely get Windows 10 to ignore the existing graphics card drivers in the registry and boot with the generic VGA driver?

Many thanks in advance

:)

 

command prompt will not open in safe mode with command prompt

Would I just follow the same steps within safe mode after hooking up to the other system?

 

command prompt will not open in safe mode with command prompt

I am repairing a laptop for a friend and I need to access windows in safe mode and the owner has forgotten the password to the main user. I tried logging on with the administrator profile in safe mode but it is not showing up so I was going to use command prompt in safe mode with command prompt but command prompt will not open when I boot that option. Does anyone have any hints for me to figure this out?

 

command prompt will not open in safe mode with command prompt

Command prompt is only accessible from the Administrative Profile, this is to prevent general users from accessing and bypassing controls.
One method is to remove the drive and connect it to another system.