Windows 10: TAP drivers create a new net device on each boot - how to uninstall ?

Hi guys,

I'm having a hard time with the TAP drivers coming with openvpn and virtual box. I noticed recently that upon each boot, new, unwanted devices are created automatically. So I had like ~26 virtual network card, each numbered incrementally. I removed them, but they keep coming back. 2 at each boot, since I have two version of these drivers, namely 'tap0901.sys' (9.0.0.9) and 'tapoas.sys' (9.0.0.7). I think one is from the virtual box install and the other one from openvpn. So every time they're loaded by the operating system, it's like they can't figure out that on device is created already, and keep adding some.

Here's the full history:
- Bought new computer with Windows 8.1 a year ago
- Installed virtual box, no problem at all. I did not check devices every day but 100% sure it was fine.
- Upgraded to Windows 10, didn't check the device section..
- Installed openvpn
- Uninstalled it the same day. So maybe 2 or 3 reboot occured.
- Checked devices to see if everything was gone. Surprise ! It wasn't gone at all but replicated like rabbits !

So I'm unsure if it's openvpn or Windows 10 upgrade that triggered the problem. Because the number of virtual device I saw the first time seemed to match the few number of boot I did Under Windows 10...

Here's what I tried so far:
- using the TAP utilities to delete all... OK but no luck at next boot...
- basic removal ( right click properties / configure / uninstall (remove driver checked) )... no luck
- basic removal + delete drivers file in safe mode... no luck
- basic removal + delete drivers + disable automatic drivers update...no luck
- used the autoruns utility to disable the faulty drivers... no luck
- used Pnputil.exe -d on the incriminated oem#.inf files ... no luck
- there are some entries in the registry but I get an access permission error on these ones, even in safe mode

What the f... is bringing these files back? *Shock
Some other people have the same problem here.
EDIT : The same exact problem described here (in spanish but screenshot are explicit).

So do you guys have any way of deleting these drivers ?
Thanks *Cool

:)

 

Uninstall TAP Windows Adapter V9

SOLVED

• Step 1: Download OpenVPN and install with ALL features from HERE : Downloads
• Step 2: Open CMD.exe as administrator and go to the file location of "C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\bin" or whatever that turns out to be.
• Step 3: Follow the "Installing and uninstalling TAP-drivers" section from the website
  
  HERE : ManagingWindowsTAPDrivers – OpenVPN Community
• OR JUST READ BELOW
• Step 4: How to get the <id> for the next section:
  • Go to Network Connections
  • Right click the TAP device you want to remove
  • Click Properties
  • Click Details
  • Using the drop-down menu, get the Hardware ID
    • This is usually something like: tapoes, tap0901 etc
• Step 5: Remove those suckers by typing the following into CMD: tapinstall.exe remove (ID from step 4)
  • it should look something like this below:

• Step 6: If you have devices that were not removed, repeat Steps 4-5 for all TAP adapters
• Step 7: Restart!
• Step 8: Uninstall OpenVPN and you're all set!

Supplementary information from the site:

Occasionally you may need play with different TAP-driver versions. In this case you can use devcon.exe from the Windows command-prompt. Below are some common commands you can run from an administrator Powershell
or cmd.exe console:

List available TAP-Windows adapters:

List network interfaces (incl. TAP-Windows adapters):

View information about an installed driver:

Uninstall a TAP-driver:

To verify TAP-driver removal:

Install a new TAP-driver:

Update a TAP-driver:

Notes:

• <id> refers to the driver identifier which is tap0901 for OpenVPN 2.2+, but may be different in older/newer OpenVPN versions.
• <something.inf> is typically OemWin2k.inf (old tap-drivers) or OemVista.inf (newer tap-drivers). You need to specify the full path to this file, e.g.C:\Program Files\TAP-Windows\driver\OemVista.inf.

By installing multiple times, you will create additional TAP-Windows adapter instances, which can be used for multiple concurrent VPN tunnels. It is also possible to install using Control Panel -> Add New Hardware,
and it is possible to uninstall using Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager.

 

Windows Fax and Scan stops working after most recent Windows 10 update

If the issue still persists after doing those troubleshooting, we suggest that you perform the following:

Method 1:

Uninstall the drivers.

• Press Windows + X, click on Device Manager.
• In the list of hardware categories, look for the device that you want to update, and then double-tap or double-click the device name.
• 
  Click the Driver tab, tap or click Uninstall.
  

Method 2:

Perform a Clean boot and restart computer.

Note: Please go through the section: How to reset computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot of the Kb article to boot the computer in normal startup after fixing the issue.

Update us on the result.