Today, the easiest way to swap the "inbox" driver with WinUSB is using a utility called Zadig. Per their docs: Once the installation is started, just wait until it completes. Normally, the installation process takes a matter of seconds, but in some circumstances, if the local system policies cannot be temporarily overridden to disable the creation of a system restore point, it may take a lot longer. You will be notified once the installation is complete.

If you are using your RTL-SDR for HF with direct sampling mode or an upconverter then we recommended using SDR# with the special decimation drivers. This will allow you to zoom in on the small bandwidth signals used on HF without loosing resolution. Below are various alternatives to SDR# that we also highly recommend. The first step to all installations is installing the drivers with Zadig. Follow the Zadig guide below when setting up a new dongle if you have not already done so during the SDR# installation. If you continue to have issues please feel free to post in the troubleshooting section of our Forums. Since it is portable, you do not need to install this program on your computer, as simply launching its executable component grants you full access over its controls. Choosing the appropriate drivers can be done by selecting them from the dedicated list. More so, you can specify the device you want to install the driver for by choosing it from the combo menu. It is also possible to display all the detected devices by toggling the corresponding function from the Options menu. USB driver installer

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If you experience problems with SDR#, SDR++ is our second choice software that we also highly recommend. Copy the ExtIO_RTL.dll file into the HDSDR install folder which is by default set to C:\Program Files (x86)\HDSDR. This is most likely due to your USB port underpowering the RTL-SDR. This can easily happen with long USB cables, or unpowered hubs. Please try connecting the RTL-SDR directly to the PC to confirm.

Embedded drivers: WinUSB v6.1.7600.16385, libusb-win32 v1.2.7.3, libusbK v3.1.0.0 & USBSer (native) Upon issuing pnputil /delete-driver, both the .inf file in C:\Windows\INF, and the driver folder in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ are deleted. Now I run Zadig and replace the driver with WinUSB. Here's the result. Note the SUCCESS and the changed Driver on the left. First test to make sure that it is not the fault of a bad USB extension cable by plugging the dongle directly into the PC. Try other USB cables if possible. If the USB connector is loose, gently pressing on the top of the USB connector on the RTL-SDR and making a small indentation can help tighten the connection. If it still disconnects often the dongle may be faulty and you should ask for a replacement. The program doesn't have many features, making it simple to learn. In the event that you want to learn every detail about the files that have been added to your system, you may expand its interface to disclose a log. There will be no guesswork because information about each supported driver is also available.I have a modern Ryzen based motherboard with USB 3.0/3.1 and no software can detect and run my RTL-SDR. If you follow the instructions when flashing a device and don't have the right USB driver installed you'll likely get an error like this: Cannot open DFU device 0483:df11

In the case where you want to install a driver for a device that is not yet plugged, and for which you have the relevant information (VID, PID, etc.), you can select the Create New option and run the installation process so that the next time the device is plugged, the driver will be available. Set the default destination directory for extraction of the driver files (default = "C:\\usb_driver")Zadig comes with a minimalistic, user-friendly interface that encompasses a handful of intuitive functions and organizes them in a neat manner, letting you access them with minimum efforts. Depending on whether these options are enabled, and when using the default drivers, Zadig will automatically generate a Catalog (.cat) file, as well as sign it with a unique self-signed certificate generated on the fly, which is then installed on the current machine during file extraction Example of a zadig preset device config file # This is a sample preset device configuration for Zadig I get decoding, audio and/or visual spectrum glitches when I set the PPM offset to a non-zero value.