More info on the debilitating WPD driver update

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Based on info from Gunter Born… [See the full post at: More info on the debilitating WPD driver update] Also see the comments at: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/mysterious-win10-update-microsoft-wpd-2222016-120000-am-5-2-5326-4762/

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I finally have a better grasp on using wushowhide – having realized to run it somewhat frequently to catch and vet updates as they come, rather than getting caught by one, having to rollback, and then running it afterwards.

Of course the whole idea that wushowhide exists begs the question – why hasn’t this been implemented or baked in to Win10 already? I guess they figure they’ll let the less savvy users take all updates as they come, and the savvy ones can pick and choose like we could before. What’s funny is that wushowhide basically goes against their whole “fully patched system” update policy they touted for 10, because it enables people to not have a fully patched system (in MS’ eyes).

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Not sure if wushowhide was involved, but in my old laptop (Win 10 Pro) I had to reset MS Updates if I hid the CUs and downloaded other updates, then tried to unhide the CUs and download them on a different occasion. Things can get out of sync when using wushowhide. I guarantee the average Home user would not want to have to reset Windows Update if this happens more than very occasionally.

-- rc primak

1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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I think what you noticed with wushowhide is exactly the same issue which I have been posting for about 1 year in relation to the bad practice of hiding updates.
Wushowhide and the Windows 7/8 hide updates applet use the same method behind the scenes.

1 user thanked author for this post.

zero2dash

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Quoting ch100: “… I have been posting for about 1 year in relation to the bad practice of hiding updates. …”

What is the evidence for this claim?

I have been hiding updates on three very differently-configured Win7 laptops for a year or two (basically, ever since the GWX debacle began) and have never seen any problem(s) that I can attribute to this practice with any degree of confidence.

Given the complexity of the WU system overall, I am also skeptical about the possibility of devising a repeatable test case that would reliably demonstrate the effect you’re claiming.

OTOH, I freely admit to having been the victim of what I will characterize as more than my fair share of WU meltdowns. Some can be fixed with a light tap from a hammer, some require a solid hit by a 2×4, and a few have required the nuclear option that deletes ALL my prior update history.

But NONE of those meltdowns seem to have anything to do with hidden updates. Rather, it seems more likely that WU has some kind of concurrency bug, i.e. a race condition if two (or more) instances are running simultaneously, resulting in the mangling of its internal databases.

Recently I have taken to making sure that a copy of WU isn’t already running BEFORE clicking “Check for updates”. I also check before running Secunia PSI, since that program appears to make use of some of the WU internals in its security patch check module.

Since then, about 6 months now, I have NOT seen a WU meltdown, while maintaining my long-standing practice of hiding an update or two whenever that seems appropriate.

— EstherD
[ Apologies for the anonymous post. I’m having trouble creating an account, and I don’t have the time or patience ATM to investigate what might be causing that. ]

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Esther – I see that you’ve set up the account, but haven’t yet responded to the confirmation email.

If you can’t find that email, shoot me mail – woody@askwoody.com – and I’ll get you set up.

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My story of having to occasionally reset Windows Update on one laptop was not an indictment of long-term hiding of driver updates. On most systems, the practice of hiding updates will never cause an issue.

What happened on this particular laptop (and this does not happen on my NUC or my tablet) was very specifically related to running Windows Update with some updates hidden by wushowhide, then unhiding previously hidden  updates and running Windows Update within the same 30-day period, just to get the CU and maybe one or two other updates. This rapid hide/unhide cycle may have confused Windows Update on that PC. But we cannot and should not generalize this one device’s issues to a broad brush indictment of the entire practice of hiding MS Updates.

As I say, this issue was only seen on one of my three PCs, and that laptop was older and had been through several major in-place OS upgrades.  All of my long-term hidden updates in there were for drivers. This practice by itself caused no issues ever. In Windows 10, the only way to hide drivers which are offered through MS Updates is to use wushowhide, and keep it up to date as KB Numbers change month by month. There is presently no Windows 10 Setting which is always respected by MS Updates, to prevent all driver updates through MS Updates.

Nevertheless, occasionally having to reset Windows Update was and is a small price to pay, compared with even one really bad CU component or a bad driver causing total Windows wreckage to the point of not being able to recover short of a full system rollback or an OS reinstall.  (That happened to me without hiding updates on my tablet, due to a Windows Store mess-up.)

Hiding updates by itself is not a bad practice. Allowing Microsoft to force poorly tested and all or nothing cumulative updates onto our PCs prematurely (less than two weeks after the Patch Tuesday or end of month release dates) is not only a bad practice — it’s downright reckless.

Even if a rollback can restore a system munged by a bad CU component or other forced automatic update, without hiding the bad update(s) with wushowhide, how could any user prevent the same bad updates with the same fatal results from reinstalling as soon as an unmetered Internet connection becomes available?

Hiding updates is a (slightly) risky practice, but the (much greater)  risks of not doing so (at least temporarily for CUs, and permanently for drivers) are far greater. It may be a bad practice, but in Windows 10 it is a necessary evil.

-- rc primak

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I was trying to edit my Reply to :

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/more-info-on-the-debilitating-wpd-driver-update/#post-100020

I think this Reply got caught in the Spam Filters again.

-- rc primak

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Sure nuff. I fished it out

2 users thanked author for this post.

woody, rc primak

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Thanks! Sorry this happens to me so much.

-- rc primak

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Windows Updates really should be classified as one of the seven wonders of the world.

It’s a mystery. You never know what updates will have.

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Especially the Cumulative Updates!

-- rc primak

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Hmm, not sure that “Wonder of the World” is quite the term I’d used to describe Windows Updates… :)!

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It’s true in the sense that the world wonders what WU is going to do this time…

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Replacing ‘Wonders’ with ‘Blunders’ seems more fitting lately..

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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I have defer upgrades set along w/ notify for restart and I saw the WPD update request notification a few days ago.  I didn’t install and today when I looked it had disappeared and it didn’t show in the update history either.  I’m guessing that MSFT pulled the update.

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Can confirm that WPD driver update is no longer available in Windows 7 Update.

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Read somewhere that this update only appears if you are using generic drivers, but if you have your drivers already updated and not generic, then this driver does not appears in Windows Update.

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

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Probably true. As with most things about generic drivers or Windows 10 drivers not downloaded from a manufacturer site (this includes using third party driver update programs!) the problems just mount and mount, until you go back to your device manufacturer’s site and download the latest available drivers or drive packages from there. Device Manager in Windows is not your friend here! And neither is MS Update.

-- rc primak

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woody wrote:

I used to recommend using Windows 10’s “Include driver updates when I update Windows” in Settings/Windows Update/ Advanced options to block driver updates, and/or the “Do not include drivers with Windows Update” group policy. I don’t recommend those any more. The first option disappeared months ago from the Settings applet in Windows 10 version 1607.

Where did you recommend these?

The setting was never in 1607.

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You’re right. The checkmark was available in Win10 1703 beta build 15002, but removed in beta build 15019. It never appeared in 1607.

In December I wrote:

With Windows 10, the updating takes place automatically when you “check” for updates – so to be sure, run wushowhide to block any pernicious driver updates. If you’re on version 1607, the Anniversary Update, there’s a better way to block Driver updates, fully explained by Shawn Brink on TenForums (thanks, b).

Shawn’s article refers to the settings.

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OK, thanks. I couldn’t find it here as it was just a link, and nothing at InfoWorld.

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woody

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My sad tale. Was having intermittent problems with my new amazon fire tablet being recognized on a Windows 8.1 laptop. After making a registry restore point, decided to install this WPD driver to see if there was any improvement. Sadly after installing the driver update, the problem became worse. Could no longer detect the device even after multiple attempts and reboots. Could not rollback or uninstall the driver because the device was not seen at all in device manager (and was not under installed updates either). Restoring the registry did not solve the problem. I was still unable to detect the amazon fire tablet. Finally after enabling show hidden devices in device manager, uninstalling the ghosted fire tablet, and rebooting, I was able to re-detect the amazon fire tablet again.

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Now Microsoft has published a statement at MS Answers about that issue. I wrote a blog post with additional information at Microsoft’s Fix for the ‘Microsoft – WPD – 2/22/2016 12:00:00 AM – 5.2.5326.4762’ driver issue

Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author

https://www.borncity.com/win/

5 users thanked author for this post.

rc primak, satrow, walker, woody, ch100

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Thanks for the information and also for the pnputil.exe commands.
Very useful.

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Thanks for the info. So the gist of the MS link is that is was a faulty update and they have removed it. I had it appear as a ‘has been downloaded, click to install’ notification and I kept the machine on or hibernating for the last two days so it wouldn’t install, and lo and behold today it has vanished.

I had a bad feeling about this one and this is the first time I’ve been to Woody’s since going from 7 to 10 on two machines last year, both of which had problems with the upgrade due to missing updates I’d avoided. A rock and a hard place, thanks Microsoft.

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This is the one place where hiding updates can come back to bite us. When doing a major upgrade, all current updates should be applied, unless they will totally prevent the system from running Windows or the upgrade installer.

All that needs to be running correctly when running an in-place upgrade are the basic Windows Installer and the core OS functions. (Think of this as sort of like running the installer in Windows Safe Mode, although this is not the same action.) All else can usually be sorted out after the upgrade is completed.

Also, this is the one time when a full inventory and updates for all device drivers should be performed. Your upgrade (lack of) success may hinge on just that one out of date driver which could have been updated. (Been there, done that; rolled back the upgrade and did the driver updates. Success followed. YMMV.)

Needless to say, whatever your System Backup method, a full system backup (test this to make sure it will restore!) is a necessity before performing any major Feature Update or  Version Upgrade.

(My best test without actually rolling back my current system, is to use my backup program’s Archive Explorer in its bootable USB WinPE 10 environment, and make sure System Files can be seen. Not failsafe, but better than just running the “Verify” function. I use Macrium Reflect Free, but there are other perfectly good options out there.)

-- rc primak

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