When you uninstall the video driver from Windows 7, it goes to a state where the Chip type, DAC type, Adapter string, BIOS Info all turns into <unavailable> in the graphics card properties panel. The monitor is also unrecognizable in the resolution setting.

In the same situation, you can access modes like the 640x480 16 Color mode!

However as soon as you restart Windows 7, you see that the Standard VGA Graphics Adaper has loaded and you are on a "Default Monitor" now. Additionally, the Graphics card details have loaded and is no longer <unavailable>. The 16 color mode now vanishes away as if it never existed, only limited to 256 colors now.

What's the difference in both cases? Are they different drivers? Why doesn't Standard VGA load immediately by a forced restart, and alternatively, what's this "driverless" state?