In Windows 10, drivers are required if they need to interact with certain hardware, such as the graphics card and network adapter.
Usually, drivers are installed automatically when you connect your devices or check for updates using the Windows Update service.
However, sometimes Windows 10 drivers could lead to serious problems, such as security issues. In Windows 10, all drivers (including third-party programs) are stored together in the DriverStore, which is located under the System32 folder of the system, which is very problematic.
Microsoft uses the "DriverStore" folder to store all drivers from Windows Vista and according to the company includes only a "reliable" collection of drivers. This folder allows drivers that use INF files. A driver is not saved in the folder unless the INF file is included.
With the upcoming update Sun Valley of Windows 10, Microsoft plans to move third-party drivers except of the System32 folder. After the next feature update, third-party drivers will be stored in a new folder “OEMDRIVERS” (C:\Windows\OEMDRIVERS) instead of DriverStore (C:\Windows\System32).
Windows will continue to verify the digital signature of third-party drivers before copying the package to the new "OEMDRIVERS" folder.
As shown in the image above, this fundamental change is currently available in the preview versions, but you can only see it when you perform a new upgrade of versions 21H2 of Windows 10 in a virtual machine.
Just like Windows 10X, "OEM DRIVERS" support allows the operating system to be isolated or run sandboxed, away from other third-party drivers, and the main advantage is security.
What you may quickly realize, however, is that the OEMDrivers folder is more than just a security enhancement. It is also a serious achievement for system performance, especially if you frequently update third-party drivers.
What we do not yet know is whether isolating drivers will reduce Blue Screen of Death errors and system errors in Windows 10.