Cannot uninstall 8.0 M2 drivers on Win10 Anniversary Update

[RAM]

Hi,

SOME BACKGROUND INFO:
We purchased a DisplayLink certified USB 3.0 dock (ClimaxDigital) and have been testing on a Win10 Anniversary Update device (Surface Pro 3).

The initial drivers that were installed automatically did not seem to work. The USB attached screen 'cycled' frequently, an issue we now believe may be down to the USB 3.0 cable length being used and the possibly low powered Surface Pro 3 USB 3.0 port. The same cable works fine on a Dell OptiPlex USB 3.0 port, but a shorter cable (than came with the ClimaxDigital dock) worked fine on the Surface Pro 3.

Regardless, as part of our testing we installed the 8.0 M2 drivers (I think the drivers installed automatically were 8.0 M1). The M2 drivers haven't fixed the issue (as mentioned above, we believe our issue to be a combination of cable length and low powered USB port) and we now want to uninstall M2 in order to test with the automatically installed drivers from Windows 10 Anniversary Update before presenting our AV solution to the rest of the office (when it has to work flawlessly for all manner of devices, ideally as automatically as possible).

OUR PROBLEM:
We cannot uninstall the 8.0 M2 drivers. They were installed using the 'DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for Windows 8.0 M2.exe' installer.

- There is nothing DisplayLink related in Programs and Features to uninstall.
- I've tried the DisplayLink EndUserCleaner.exe (v 8.0.453.0) - run as Administrator, twice in succession. The files remain in C:\Program Files\DisplayLink Core Software. The DisplayLink Manager icon remains in the taskbar and in Startup. Even after a restart.

How do we uninstall these drivers\this install?

Thanks
James

ps. I don't like seeing the DisplayLink Manager all the time in the task bar in Win10 Anniversary Update, even if no DisplayLink devices are connected. If it has to appear (it doesn't provide much IMHO), I think it should only appear when a DisplayLink device is connected.

[AlbanRampon]

Hello James,

Having the application always visible even when nothing is connected is a feature IT managers have requested for troubleshooting. This is the case on all versions of Windows since 8.0 M0.
This is not pertinent for the anniversary update totally yet though.

You have met a bug we have noticed as well and plan fixing in a new revision of both the installer and the cleaner.

In the meantime, you can remove the application from the startup as there is no service or anything like that on the anniversary update. On 8.0 M2, this is a standalone application.
An alternative way would be to install 8.0 M2 from the setup.exe again. The installer creates an entry called DisplayLink Graphics Driver. The use of the cleaner will have deleted the entry.

In the future, if you don't want the application at all on the anniversary update, just connect the USB and let Windows Update do the rest. You can click on Update driver from Device Manager should you wish to gather non-critical updates manually.

Cable quality can have an impact on the USB 3.0 communication. The DisplayLink chip works in USB 2.0 as well so doesn't require a high throughput to work. It could be that the cable from ClimaxDigital was defective.

Kind regards,
Alban

[RAM]

Hi Alban,

Just a quick update to confirm that reinstalling the M2 driver has indeed now allowed me to identify it in Programs and Features and the DisplayLink EndUserCleaner.exe (v 8.0.453.0) then worked and uninstalled completely.

Thanks
James