How to disable Win10 driver updates

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I’m seeing even more reports of zapped drivers — people who install the latest cumulative updates, and end up with new driver versions that mess with
[See the full post at: How to disable Win10 driver updates]

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Elly, CyGuy, lmacri, GreatAndPowerfulTech, Fred, satrow

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Intel moving to release a universal driver through Windows update. Apparently Microsoft wants to completely take over the release of drivers from PC makers and hardware makers. What could go wrong?

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Microfix, lanceboil, BobbyB

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Hm.

Sure, Microsoft has a working example or several to follow, in Linux and some such… because this mostly does work with the various Linux distros.

However, I’ll note that the example really doesn’t apply to this situation at all, and even so… well, just last ran into driver installation instructions for Linux with kernel recompilation as one step, today…

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Drivers will be part of the MS W10 ecosystem and it’s only be a matter of time that these tweaks for Pro/ Home editions simply won’t work…it’s inevitable. MS AI will get more efficient so less user intervention is required for drivers, it’s logical but painful for now.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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BobbyB

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Not really sure how the Registry hack works on Win10 Home editions as drivers generally come once in a Blue Moon As a stop gap if the Reg or delving in to GPOL is not your thing you can use WUMT and wushowhide I believe occasionally drivers show up once in a while with those but your probably going to have to run them manually daily/weekly, well most who do use them have to do it any way with the state of patching so you could hide any driver updates with them. The Win10 Pro Edition GPOL does block Driver updates to a point, if you set the Policy to NO drivers on a clean install with Network initially OFF it does download some Drivers regardless but not the full range, on the Last machine it did download the Intel display driver and that was about it instead of the usual 5 for that Machine. In device Manager the INTEL TXE (trusted Execution Engine) has the latest driver but needs an older Driver to have a clean sheet, on this Machine at least, and this reignites the age old debate in here are the M$ distributed Drivers any good? In the case of the current Win10 installs I see day in day out I haven’t seen any problems only the Intel TXE and that seems not to affect performance and stability at all either way that I can perceive, best advice I can give is if the OEM or firmware maker is distributing drivers go with them first in case of problems. Find your own driver environment that works best for your Machine and stick with it and needless to say save them somewhere. For older Machines (Win2k onwards) the M$ driver repository is quite handy for sourcing Drivers especially older obscure drivers Readon/AMD xpress200M springs to mind, 10mb .cab file without the associated crudware 60mb that comes with it. Its a very much trial and error here even to this day, shouldn’t be but it is alas. If you have a good working System give the Registry Hack a try or Set the Group Policy, as you just never know what’s coming down that old update chute.

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Fred, Microfix

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@Woody
If you have Windows 10 Home, you have to create a registry key.
1  Open Registry Editor (regedit)
2 Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows
Add a new Key named “WindowsUpdate”
3 Inside WindowsUpdate, add a new DWORD “ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate” with a value of “1”

As far I know this is good….
only I used the tool O&O-w10shutup,
my registry key looks like in the jpg, and works fine

regards fred

 

* _ ... _ *

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BobbyB, lmacri

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How do you know that it works?
Have you noticed any differences with that value and without it?
I am asking because there are very good chances that values implemented under the Policies section of the Registry do not work in the Home Edition as it was documented repeatedly here.

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I am using ‘stopupdates10’ running Win10 Home Version 1803

I stopped updating in October 20ish, 2018

My Registry  looks a bit different, but works nonetheless.

ymmv

 

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_Reassigned Account wrote:

Intel moving to release a universal driver through Windows update. Apparently Microsoft wants to completely take over the release of drivers from PC makers and hardware makers. What could go wrong?

this is going to end badly.  I can see M$ receiving the vendor designed driver, checking it for compatibility with their latest alpha test release they are foisting on Windows users, then deciding, “…nah, we like our driver better because the vendor supplied driver that works perfectly with the released Windows doesn’t work with the festering pond scum that we are going to release next month…”

 

Hey look! Another Feature Update!

You mean I shouldn't click Check for Updates?

Where is the Any key?

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The registry change does work – I have it it in my setupcomplete.cmd file on WDS.

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I just got this from RTC:

Win 10-1809 deletes your sound driver but fails to install a new one.
(This is fairly common for Win 10 Updates.)

The Fix is to go to Control Panel-Sound and install a new driver.

Then (depending on your setup) disable Micophone and Either
Line In or Stereo Mix.

Unlike earlier updates,1809 has severe feedback trying to run both
Line In and Stereo Mix.

Also turn off all Sound Enhancements (at least at first) to make sure
all is well.

Please post any new way to stop driver updates in Win 10 Home,the
reg fix failed to work here.

Do you think this month’s Win 10 patches are Trustworthy yet?

(Feels Funny using Trust and Micosoft in the same sentence☺.)

 

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I have updated my Lenovo Yoga tablet for the 3rd time, I think, and for the 3rd time I need to find the USB hub, connect the keyboard and mouse and then install platform drivers to be able to use touch again. I’m wondering if MS EVER resolves this. Ah well, will just clean install, since it’s an “entertainment” equipment anyway…

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That registry key seemed to work for me on Home edition, but I only ran Windows 10 up until 1709 and then reverted to Windows 8.1 due to fatigue. I don’t recall ever having a graphics driver or anything updated after adding it.

Here it is in command line reg form if anyone needs it for a batch file:

reg add “HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v “ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate” /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f

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The method above only works for drivers installed, that are updated through Microsoft Windows Update. This however, will not stop Microsoft Windows 10 from downloading drivers for unknown devices without a driver (which may be unwanted with a new installation or a driver that can cause issues). To enable this for drivers for unknown devices not to search online at all do the following:

1. Start regedit
2. Go to registry key “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching”
3. Set SearchOrderConfig to 0
4. Start cmd and run gpupdate /force

All done!

It’s one of the reasons that I install every single Microsoft Windows 10 PC or laptop without an ethernet cable connected and with WiFi disconnected. Only after that I apply the policies registry changes I plug in my ethernet cable, so I at least know it will not automatically start downloading drivers and **** the newly installed PC up (Thank you Micro$oft).

Edit: Please refer to lounge rules for foul language.

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Please, don’t spread misinformation. The “SearchOrderConfig” value is ignored in Windows 10. It only works for older windows versions.

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…The “SearchOrderConfig” value is ignored in Windows 10. …

Please provide proof of the above claim to help avoid the spread of such misinformation, as you’ve asked the previous poster to not spread misinformation.

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I’ve personally verified (in dozens of computers) that the value “SearchOrderConfig” doesn’t work, Windows will automatically install drivers for the devices as soon as it gets access to the internet.

There’s plenty of confirmation from other people if you don’t believe me:

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/windows-10-registry-tweak-for-disabling-drivers-auto-update-controversy.418033/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4o71g7/yup_disabling_driver_updates_in_windows_10_simply/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SCCM/comments/8qhqpj/how_to_disable_automatic_driver_updates_in/

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Also, look what Microsoft says about the “ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate” value:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-configure-wufb

“Starting with Windows 10, version 1607, you can selectively opt out of receiving driver update packages as part of your normal quality update cycle. This policy will not apply to updates to drivers provided with the operating system (which will be packaged within a security or critical update) or to Feature Updates, where drivers might be dynamically installed to ensure the Feature Update process can complete.”

So, some drivers will still be forced upon you, no matter what.

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It’s not misinformation. It needs to be set in addition to the registry key in the article. I’m using it on all our PC’s and not a single PC has gotten driver updates from Micro$oft ever since. Even if you plug in a new USB device like an xbox one controller it will show an unrecognizable device and won’t find drivers through windows update either, until you set  the value to one. The condition is that you haven’t plugged it in before though, otherwise the driver is already cached. Running version 1803 and 1809 on some PC’s.

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Mmm, I don’t know about those versions (I’m still using 1607 LTSB, and we won’t upgrade to 1809 LTSC until next year).

But in my experience trying to stop drivers coming from WindowsUpdate has always been impossible.

One possible explanation could be this:

https://i.imgur.com/Wj4PIvn.png

I’ve just found that info in a forum. I always disable telemetry, so that’s probably why I was unable to stop those drivers from Wupdate…

Sigh… live and learn!

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There was this laptop that got updated with an Nvidia driver running Windows 10 Home version recently after being updated to 1809 and then it made the Intel driver disabled for some reason and then external monitor stopped working (going back to previous Nvidia driver fixes it) . I am not 100% sure, but I think it did have our latest standard settings, which means the registry key would have been there and it would not have worked in this particular case (after the feature update, maybe to ensure compatibility with it, I don’t know). I also don’t know if the feature update removes the key, I had it since 1607.

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There is a setting in Group Policy (if you have Windows 10 Pro) which allows you to tell Windows not to do driver updates. As I recall: Under the Computer (not the user) settings, choose Administrative, Windows, Windows Updates. There is a policy in that section which allows you to block driver updates.

(I can’t verify the exact steps right now, because I’m at work and I don’t have access to the Group Policy on my work computer.)

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I have posted a picture so that MrJimPhelps won’t have to:

run gpedit.msc in Win10 Pro/Education/Enterprise or LTSB/LTSC, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update and look for the option “Do not include drivers with Windows Updates” and set it to Enabled

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MrJimPhelps

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