How to roll back a bad driver update

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I’m seeing complaints all over the web from people who installed a bad Windows driver update. Typically, they ran Windows Update earlier this month an
[See the full post at: How to roll back a bad driver update]

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In Windows 10, when wushowhide displays the available updates (running in the “Hide Updates” direction) my experience shows that drivers listed above the current Cumulative Update tend not to be automatically installed when Windows Update is run. But I have to watch for any drivers which show up below the CU. These can (and on one of my PCs, did) install automatically when Windows 10 Windows Update is run.

I would definitely hide anything below the CU in the list which looks like a driver. Anything listed above the CU is not likely to install, but may be hidden just to stay safe.

Using DriverMax to identify new versions of installed and working drivers is unwise. DriverMax lists any newer version for any detected driver, whether or not the newer driver applies to the specific hardware, overall device configuration or OS Version on the device. This lack of specific matching has caused more than one driver obtained through the guidance of DriverMax to make my PCs unbootable. Or to lack things like touchscreen or sound when restarted after a driver update based on DriverMax guidance.

With drivers, unless the manufacturer (for the specific driver) has issued a Security Update, the old advice “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” still applies. Especially true for 2-in-1s and tablets, which use all-inclusive “System” or SoC driver packages and custom firmware.

I also find that even on devices where such features as Silverlight are not installed, patches for these features may be listed in wushowhide above the current CU listing. These available patches also don’t automatically install when Windows Update is run, since the features themselves are not installed. Again, to play it safe, these available updates can be hidden.

Otherwise, I find preventing drivers from being messed with by MS Updates is fairly straightforward in Windows 10. Especially if during the initial installation, the option not to download and install driver updates through Microsoft Updates was selected. I don’t remember whether this option can be selected after Win 10 is installed.

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When will you be covering (as promised) the “Do not include drivers with Windows Updates” policy available since Windows 10 version 1607?

Driver Updates in Windows Update – Enable or Disable in Windows 10
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/48277-driver-updates-windows-update-enable-disable-windows-10-a.html

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Good point. I should add that to this discussion.

I also need to add a “Ain’t broke, don’t fix” admonition.

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Following up (thanks, @b!)

See this:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/excluding-drivers-from-windows-update-in-win10-a-wu-option/#post-97032

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Woody..Hope I’m not off topic here. I’ve been trying to follow what’s going on and I’m just getting to know Win 10 , so I fall into the Novice category. I have Home version and I have been getting the

updates forced, downloaded and installed each month with no say as to if and when I want them. I’m ethernet connected

and just did change the registry to make the update server think I’m on metered and to ask before downloading. I just

ran the wushowhide utility and I have no hidden updates, but I do have a rather large list showing under Hide Updates.
My question is, are these updates waiting to be installed or have they already been installed ? I see updates to chip

sets ( 5 of them ) , USB reader, Nvidia, Bluetooth, Realtek, Alcor Micro, Brother Printer, Intel hardware etc. Quite A

List. If these are waiting to be installed, do I hide them all or do I just go back and hide the ones that give me

trouble, if any of them cause trouble ?
Thank You..Appreciate what you are doing here.
Steve

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Woody,

At least based on my experience, explained ad nauseam [;)]over the previous two days, at least when it comes to the Realtek driver issue this is not a problem for Win 10 machines. That driver is the proper driver for Win 10. It is not the proper driver for Win 8.1., 8.0 and 7. I think the bulk of these problems are going to end-up being related, not to Win 10 machines, but to WU pushing the wrong drivers to Win 8 or below machines. If so, and the other advice you give in the intro post doesn’t work out, people may be forced into update catalog to try to find the correct driver, especially if they aren’t dealing with an Intel driver, and that is going to be beyond the skill-set of most lay computer owners.

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A personal piece of advice that has saved my b*tt many times: make regular images of your computer(s). I make 3 types of images on every computer I have: weekly, monthly and incidental images. The weekly images are deleted 8 weeks after they have been made. The monthly images I never delete. The incidental images are for cases where I need an image outside of the regular schedule, f.i. right before installing Windows Updates or another program which might be somewhat risky. The reason for keeping the monthly images is that I can track a bug or issue that comes up now, but may have had the origin some time ago. I have had 2 or 3 cases where I went back 2 or 3 years and thus was able to find the origin of an issue and thus to either solve it or judge that it was not important enough to fix.
I also keep a log of the changes on my computer in Excel, one tab per month. I cannot tell you how much time that has saved me. Sometimes just by looking at what I have done and judging which program might have been the culprit of an issue. Other times it helps me in judging whether it is easier just to restore an image or try solve the issue first and if that does not work restore an image. In the latter case the log tells me exactly what I did after the last image and what I need to do to get where I want to be.
This approach seems like a lot of work but it has paid out many times. I have never panicked when an update or program scr**ed up my computer. The biggest setback has only been the time and effort for restoring my computer.
I use Acronis True Image for imaging, but do not like that program anymore and am therefore in the process of changing to Macrium Reflect (the paid version which has Rapid Delta Restore which works great I read on user forums). With True Image I have had the experience sometimes that it did not properly recognize backup chains, where it should have. I have always found a way to work around it (e.g. by using the recovery CD that does always recognize the chains). Another issue (there are more) is that sometimes it starts a new chain with a full image where it just should have made an incremental image. I found True Image a good product for full images, but once I started using more of its functionality (e.g. chains with automatic deletion of older backups) it just messed things up every once in a while and then I lost lots of time to get things right.

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Thanks for writing this up. I’m normally so careful about the ain’t broke policy, but a techy friend said “always take chipset updates” so here I am.

I just wanted to add that my one was none of the above, but was instead called:

Intel – System – 6/28/2016 12:00:00 AM – 14.35.1.69
Installation date: ‎17/‎12/‎2016 21:31

I’ve been having some graphics-based crashes lately, (usually when watching streamed video on one monitor while playing 3D on another, but at other times too.)

This could very well be related to the two or more updates Radeon gave me this month instead.

Is a Restore point the only way back from these? I can’t find this in Device Manager. PC works fairly fine other than those occasional crashes.

Unfortunately my most recent Restore Point is a week after I installed this thing.

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Woody,

One more point. When I installed the inappropriate Realtek driver on Wednesday, after I rolled back, I saw the version number was very old as was the date, 2010 if I recall correctly. This suggests to me that, up until this week, MS had not pushed to me any Realtek USB driver. This also suggests to me that, for whatever reason, MS has decided to become more aggressive in pushing drivers, not only for Win 10 but for the other OS’s as well. If this is the case, and only MS knows the answer, MS might wish to visit the wisdom of this decision.

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I mentioned that Group Policy not long ago.

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1. Go to Control Panel and uninstall from there if there is an installer. Many drivers come with an installer and the best way to uninstall is to use their own installer.

2. Device Manager, right-click on the bad device driver, uninstall and also select the box to delete the driver. Otherwise will get reinstalled.

3. (Optional) There is a lot more if you need to know more. Configure the environment variable DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES and after configuring it, enable Show hidden devices and remove the leftovers. Be aware that this can be dangerous if you don’t know what you do, this is why it is hidden.

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Again, M$ enable my DISABLED updates this morning! I rolled back “important updates” to my win7 64, earlier this month after my system became unusable. This is @ the 5th time this has happened. Be careful out there people!

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It does not work and you will still get the drivers

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I have four of these Intel driver updates in Windows 8.1, only one is Optional/unticked, these three are Important/ticked…

INTEL – System – 1/1/1970 10.1.2.80
INTEL – System – 10/3/2016 10.1.1.38
Intel – System – 11/16/2016 11.6.0.1042

and

Intel – System – 3/13/16 11.0.0.1010 (Optional)

May be because I’ve not installed any Intel MB drivers yet, other than the LAN/Ethernet driver. But even so, pushing *four* versions at me seems deeply stupid (AKA Microsftesque) under any circumstances.

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I didn’t know that. OUCH!

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Every time you run wushowhide, you can select or unselect any patches. If you have a patch hidden, it shouldn’t get installed. The safest approach for the hidden updates that you have is to ignore driver updates for hardware that’s working fine and, for the rest, install them, one by one, and check whatever hardware they’re connected to.

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Rolling back the System Restore point(s) that Windows Update creates before applying the update will also work.

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Wow! So WUMT does configure the policy but it is not useful?

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Time to test, but it is really difficult, because the VMs do not get driver updates from Microsoft, although Citrix is getting there.

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With Home edition and no metered connection there is not much which you can do effectively. If you can afford it and the hardware is good enough so you don’t require new hardware, get a Pro licence.

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Thanks

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@JNP I don’t know about the Realtek driver simply because I don’t have that piece of hardware. However I did a lot of testing with the Intel Chipset Driver for the last few dahys and I found that the whole idea is to create drivers compatible with ALL operating systems qualifying for upgrades. What tends to blur the conclusions is that drivers which were not compatible with server OS before are made compatible now and commonly servers are not upgraded in place, except in extreme situations.
So I am expecting that if your Realtek driver was pushed to Windows 7/8.1, although has version 10 and is compatible with Windows 10, it is at the same time compatible with all the other operating systems.
What makes you think that it is not? Does it have functional issues when installed on Windows 7 or 8.1?

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Thanks, Pim. Brilliant. I have archived this.

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@100, don’t have much time, off to see Patti Smith perform on her birthday, but YES functional issues exist: It made all the USB ports not function. Good news, rolling back in device mgr. works like a charm (I did the update in device mgr. too, not WU.) I’ve reported this problem twice now. If you are curious about the full story, it may be bleak, please see my previous post Woody asked me to post in this thread: MS-DEFCON 3: Cautiously update Windows and Office.

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Microsoft MAY be giving Home Users the option of pausing (deferring) updates for 35 days.

Yet again Microsoft are conflating an ‘update’ with an ‘upgrade’.

See the article here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/12/30/windows-10-upgrade-changes/

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“I generally don’t recommend that you hide unwanted updates in Win7 and 8.1.”

Why?

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I believe Gordon is mistaken, but I haven’t installed the pirate build yet. The distinction between update (e.g., cumulative update) and upgrade (e.g., from 1511 to 1607) is an important one, and Microsoft keeps munging it up.

The original Winaero post and other posts overlook the fact that 1607 Pro users can already delay updates using gpedit.

See http://www.infoworld.com/article/3138088/microsoft-windows/woodys-win10tip-block-forced-win10-updates.html from Step 3C onward.

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@abbodi86
Let’s try the “classical” set of policies instead, if the dedicated one does not work:
Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Device Installation

– Prevent device metadata from the Internet
– Specify search order for device driver source locations
– Specify the search server for device driver updates

Those 3 policies should work for all devices on Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 and later and correspond to the settings under Control Panel/System/Advanced System Settings/Hardware/Device Installation Settings
In addition to the Control Panel settings, there are few more options there which can be configured only via policy.

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Thank you for your reply.
I hope you enjoyed Patti Smith and have a Happy New Year!

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Ya, that a good idea. Clonezilla is my tool of choice. It just lacks a GUI. Imaging a drive is not something average Jane will do, but your right it can be a lifesaver. I probably need to do one right now. I like to add a week to Woody’s “all clear” announcement.

As far as that driver update goes, NEVER use MS drivers except the generic one for DVD Drives or the like. I only use the OEM Drivers per component. My system is a Dell and might use drivers based on the service tag, but I still prefer the original vendor drivers.

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There are odd situations where hidden updates come back – become automatically unhidden – without warning. Folks who rely on a hidden update staying hidden may be surprised. If they aren’t careful, they may end up installing a previously-hidden update.

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It creates confusion when an update is re-released under the same name without overwriting it in place. KB2952664 is a typical example, but this is not the only one.
A user hiding a current version of KB2952664 believes that this is hidden, but when the newer version is released, the user believes that the update was unhidden by Microsoft by stealth which is not the case. It is only a new update.
When the old one is expired/retired/pulled whatever you want to call that procedure, the cached user database remains with an orphaned record previously hidden which does not have a corresponding record in the master database at Microsoft. I call this cached database corruption which can create slow scanning and it is better avoided.
The only way to recover is to delete SoftwareDatabase folder and start rebuilding it clean without hiding any other updates in the future.
This should be a sticky as it was explained only by me at least 20 times.

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I think it’d be a good topic for an AKB article, when we get the Lounge kicked in…

Wonder if wushowhide has similar problems?

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I would say wushowhide is another GUI for the functionality present in Windows 7/8.1 by default. I think we analysed here on askwoody.com how wushowhide worked immediately after it was found to be useful, many months ago and found exactly that, but as I don’t normally use this utility because I use alternative solutions, I cannot remember exactly.
With Windows 10 though, I don’t remember having updates released under the same KB number, while having a different update id, like KB2952664. The only issue can be with things like CUs which are retired after a while or when there is an upgrade. So I would say that the tool should be used only as long as it is useful and not longer than that to avoid the specified issues in my post.
Let’s say we want to hide the current CU for some reason, e.g. we know that the WU installation fails or we want to wait for the MS-DEFCON to change to a higher rating. So we install manually when the time comes, but after the successful installation, that update and any older superseded CUs from previous months should be unhidden to avoid issues down the track.

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It’s not WUMT fault, you can set the actual group policy yourself, yet drivers will be still offered

and these two policies do not make a difference either
– Prevent device metadata from the Internet
– Specify search order for device driver source locations

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Woody,

I have had the above optional updates show up on our desktop, but not the laptop. From the possible problems encountered, I hid them on the desktop. SO FAR, no problems. Also installed Security updates recommended by you. Again, no problems, SO FAR.

Running Win 7 X64 SP1 on both machines.

Keep up the good work. TYVM ! ! !

Dave

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Thanks for the sighting!

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Except, it would seem (given Abbodi’s explanation), hidden driver updates.

I wonder if Microsoft could make this any more complicated?

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I don’t know abbodi’s explanation, but I would be very interested to know.

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Read Gordon’s article a couple of days ago. He talks like it’s for Home.
Somewhere I thought I read that was for Enterprise (maybe Pro) only, and not for Home. Can’t back this up b/c I forget where…

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The method described – using gpedit – will only work, potentially, some day with Pro, Enterprise or Education, not Home. But the Pro version already has a way to block updates through gpedit. So I’m mystified by the whole brouhaha (which is why I haven’t written about it). At some point we’ll see the “real” thing in beta and at that point I’ll try to figure out if it’s a tempest in a teapot. I think it is – MS seems to be putting a gpedit setting into the main Settings applet, which is commendable but not earth-shattering.

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@100 Substance first, then Patti.

1. Substance: You wrote: “I found that the whole idea is to create drivers compatible with ALL operating systems qualifying for upgrades.” Now, this makes sense from a MS point of view because, if it can be pulled off, it makes everything much easier for MS. It also makes sense with the fact that the last two entries in the catalog for the Realtek driver just simply says Realtek USB and then you get driver 10.0.10586.31225 which breaks USB ports on at least Win 7 machines. It also makes sense with the fact that this was the first time I have EVER been pushed the Realtek driver, and I assume others were pushed the drivers for the touchpads, etc., for the first time. However, it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t seem to be working and consumers are ending up with broken computers and/or inoperable ports, etc.

It seems that MS wants something more approaching a closed system, like Apple, but MS/PC has all these different software, chipset, peripherals, etc. manufactures and MS is trying to do this for three different operating systems. This approaches madness, if it doesn’t actually constitute madness. The consumer is now paying the price for this flawed policy.

2. Patti: It was Patti’s 70th birthday in, as the way she always puts it: “the city of my birth”. She performed Horses from beginning to end. Michael Stipe came out and sang her happy birthday. At the end, Patti and the band crushed “People Have The Power” and “My Generation”. It was one of the most remarkable nights of music I’ve ever witnessed and I still go to around 20-30 show a year. Happy new year to you too.

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Ooops. I just re-read your post, and you’re right. Forget what I said about “Abbodi’s explanation.”

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Wow. Wish I was there!

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Woody, I’ve written a short review for my friends. I’ll e-mail it to you now.

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Post it here!

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@JNP
Few comments on your post.
You say: “Now, this makes sense from a MS point of view because, if it can be pulled off, it makes everything much easier for MS.”
Actually it would make things easier for the user as the user is the one who has the problem of a broken computer during a potentially failed upgrade from Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10.
As we have seen, Microsoft considers the offer to upgrade a bonus but they decline the responsibility when things don’t go according to the plan.
Microsoft instead would simplify the already huge number of drivers they host on their Windows Update servers, something they are trying to achieve with the regular updates as well.

You also say: “It seems that MS wants something more approaching a closed system, like Apple, but MS/PC has all these different software, chipset, peripherals, etc. manufactures and MS is trying to do this for three different operating systems.”

They may wish to do so and the current situation with the existing diversity of hardware is extremely difficult to manage as we already know, but I don’t think it is possible due to the nature of the Windows design. Linux seems to have the same sort of fundamental issues with the drivers for various types of hardware, but once resolved, I believe that Linux drivers implementation tends to become more reliable.
I don’t really understand why Microsoft tries to control the driver space instead of delegating it to the hardware manufacturers. Maybe this is because of the previous issues with frequent BSODs due to problems with Graphics Cards or it may just be a poor management decision taken sometime in the past and they now have to keep maintaining what they started.

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Offered the INTEL 10.1.1.38 (optional) again today. Second time it’s been offered.

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I never said it is WUMT which is to blame for the configuration. It is only newer functionality in WUMT which gives the impression that it does the job, but obviously Microsoft did not complete their part of the job well.

It may also be a misunderstanding, in the sense that the Group Policy says:
“Enable this policy to not include drivers with Windows quality updates”

Well, in fact the driver updates are not packed with quality updates, but separately, so this policy may be reserved for future packaging of the drivers with quality (non-security in other words) updates.

The fact remains that it does not work as most reasonable people would expect, regardless of the wording of the description.

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I believe Microsoft description of updates goes like this:

– quality updates = the normal updates for the same OS version

– feature updates = the upgrade build for next OS version

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Your description of the current updates is correct. Quality in fact means anything other than security in my understanding. Where there is a security component, this is added to the title like in “Security Monthly Quality Rollup”. As this keeps changing, it may contain critical driver components sometime in the future.

What I said is that in the description of that policy, it appears that at least there is a possibility that Microsoft would pack Drivers and Quality Updates in the same package, which is not happening at the moment and has never happened in the past.
The effect of the policy would be to block the installation of the drivers in that context only. I don’t see how this would be achieved, but this is what text of the description appears to tell me. And this may explain the current behaviour of that policy which appears to do nothing.

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Win7 x64 HP & Pro
I only just checked and Yup, same here..
Now hidden on both systems.

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On an 8.1 PC at work, I installed a few updates yesterday. Today, I’m getting the
INTEL – System – 10/3/2016 12:00:00 AM – 10.1.1.38
as an Important rather than Optional one.

Oddly, I also just noticed the little message under “You receive updates:” that reads:
“Windows 10 is coming soon. Reserve your free upgrade.”
WTH???

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@Woody:

Seeing the manner in which users are referring to their specific issues, I would like to recommend “WHEN THE LOUNGE IS KICKED IN” the following:

1. That there is a requirement that all users posing comments, very clearly identify the OS they are using.

2. That there will be a ***REFERENCE to ALL acronyms, spelling out the exact name, and to which OS (‘s) it applies. It is extremely difficult to “navigate ” comments when a user does not identify specifics.

***A Sidebar with such a listing would be a big help.

Just a few thoughts which would be helpful for the “average Joe/Jane” user who is not knowledgeable about these facts.

The Lounge is a great idea, and I’m sure there are others who may have thoughts about this as well.

Thank you for proposing this, Woody!

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