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I changed my video driver to "Standard VGA Graphics adapter" in order to play a game on Windows Vista. I played the game, it was fun, etc.

Now I want my old, good-looking display back. I've followed the instructions posted by _r.u.s.s., but when I told my computer to automatically install drivers it told me that I was already using the best drivers (Which is definitely not true). If I browse from a list it only list "Generic PnP" and "Generic Non-PnP," both of which look equally like crap. Choosing to "roll back drivers" also does nothing.

Any advice would be appreciated. My computer is only a year old, I don't want to be stuck in this graphical wasteland forever.

-Alex

[Eagle of Fire]

Moving to technical since this is a technical issue.

[Wicky]

Very simple, download the latest driver for your graphics card. Since it will be newer date than any other driver you have right now, it will use them instead.

[Japo]

What Wicky said. Figure out your card manufacturer and model (ATI, nVidia), go to their website, and download the latest drivers (look for a section called "drivers" or "supports", "downloads"...)

If you have problems identifying the card, you can use this program:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

[_r.u.s.s.]

click start, type rstrui into the search box, do a system restore to a point before your drivers update. i'm pretty sure it created a checkpoint before changing your videocard adapter into the standart vga one

note that it will also roll back all of the data to that point of system restore, so backup any important things that you've changed in the mean time

[wackypanda]

System Restore does not normally affect data like pictures and documents, only installed stuff. That said, there's no such thing as backing up too often.

[Wicky]

System Restore points are not a good idea when you never know what exactly Microsoft is doing.
I'd recommend a clean solution like, "drive snapshot" instead.

Granted, it just makes a bit-by-bit sector copy of your harddrive without any resistance, but you also need some preparation first. It's necessary to separate all data files (movies, music, isos) to a a separate harddrive. If you keep your system disc clean and small, then it can store your OS in multiple states inside a compressed archive. With this drive snapshot, the entire disc can be backuped to exactly like it was in any time in the past to a point of my choice.

Like, when all drivers and hotifxes were downloaded, but graphic card drivers haven't yet touched my system. This is like saving 50 hours of tweaking and configuration where every window position is and ini-files are stored, without doing repetition.

[Eagle of Fire]

JFYI, I use an old graphics card which is not very good. I have found on the net "Omega Drivers" made and maintained by a dedicated guy... And since then, I have solved 95% of the issues I had with my graphic card.

I'm not sure I'll ever switch back. New drivers just create new issues because they drop compatibility with older drivers (and games).

[Japo]

True, there's no reason to update any drivers (or BIOS) unless you're experiencing problems with them (or if the new ones add new features you want), because the new ones may have new issues, (and currently the quality of the coding of most drivers in the graphic card market is poor).

But in this case FlyingTritons is experiencing a problem, so he should update.

[_r.u.s.s.]

.. just do the system restore