Security News > 2021 > March > Windows 10 is getting OEMDRIVERS, a folder for third-party drivers
Microsoft is adding a dedicated OEMDRIVERS folder to Windows 10 that will be used to store third-party drivers.
Since Windows Vista, the operating system has included a folder called %SystemRoot%System32DriverStore that is used to hold validated drivers for the operating system.
It appears this is about to change as Windows hacker Albacore has discovered a hidden feature in the Windows 10 21H2 preview build 21343 that creates a dedicated folder for third-party drivers.
Looks like Microsoft wants to isolate 3rd party drivers on Desktop similarly to how they isolate them on 10X. No dedicated partition, but a folder will do.
This feature is called 'Writeable DriverStore,' and when enabled, will cause Windows 10 to migrate all third-party drivers to a dedicated OEMDRIVERS folder when a new version of the operating system is installed.
Once it is enabled and the new version is installed, Windows 10 will automatically migrate external drivers to the OEMDRIVERS folder.