Windows 10 driver management

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This topic is for information related to driver management on Windows 10.

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From document Windows 10 Driver Publishing Workflow:

“Distributing a driver through Windows Update falls into three different scenarios. […]

•    Missing Driver
This scenario occurs when Windows discovers new hardware. This could be due to a user plugging in a new peripheral, pairing with a networked or wireless device (such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct), docking with a new docking station, and so on.

When Windows recognizes the new hardware, it checks Windows Update for a driver for the newly discovered hardware. Even if a driver was already installed, the new hardware will trigger a search on Windows Update to check for a newer version of the driver. If one exists then it is downloaded and installed.

A good example of this scenario is if a user formats their hard drive and installs Windows fresh, from a DVD or USB drive. Once Windows is up and running it discovers all of the hardware components (display, USB hub, internal components, and so on) and fetches drivers from Windows Update.

•    Update Driver
This scenario occurs when a user requests that Windows Update download and update an existing driver that is already installed on a device running Windows.

This typically occurs because the user is advanced and wants to use a newer driver, or because an IT administrator or customer support technician has instructed the user to do so.

•    Auto Update Driver
Similar to the Update Driver scenario, the Auto Update Driver scenario involves updating an existing driver on a device running Windows. The difference between the two scenarios is that Auto Update Driver happens automatically, without any user interaction.

This requires that the device running Windows is configured to automatically update itself from Windows Update.

These scenarios have been supported for several releases. Windows 10 will support the Missing Driver and Auto Update Driver scenarios.”

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ch100

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You have to convert it to .txt before cut/paste from Word

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MrBrian

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MrBrian wrote:

These scenarios have been supported for several releases. Windows 10 will support the Missing Driver and Auto Update Driver scenarios.”

I think the Auto Update Driver behaviour has been tuned after 1507 as I mentioned in another post.
Auto Update is offered only if the existing driver is known to have security issues, in which case the driver update becomes a Security Update or the existing driver is obsolete functionally, in which case that updated driver becomes a Critical Update. This last scenario is most likely to happen when Windows 10 gets a new release.

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This post is about Windows Update options for drivers that are submitted to Microsoft by driver manufacturers.

From Publish a driver to Windows Update:

“By default, drivers on Windows Update are marked as Optional. This means that a driver is only delivered if the device does not have a driver installed already.

These options allow you to override the default behavior but require additional Microsoft evaluation.

Select Automatically deliver and install this driver during Windows Upgrade to promote your driver to be available for Dynamic Update.

Select Automatically deliver and install this driver on all applicable systems to promote your driver to Critical.”

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ch100

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In post #132099 we learned that some drivers on Windows Update are of type Optional. Since Windows Update in Windows 10 doesn’t show or install updates of type Recommended or Optional, for scenario Auto Update Driver (see post #132096) drivers of type Optional will not be updated automatically.

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I would be interested to know more about the treatment of Recommended Updates in Windows 10 Auto Update behaviour. I think the Recommended updates are pushed like the Critical Updates, but it may as well be a case that Recommended category disappeared from the picture and merged behind the scenes with Critical, as it was intended for a very long time and as it is natural. If there is authoritative information saying otherwise, I would be more than interested to know.

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Microsoft states that scenario Update Driver (see post #132096) is not supported on Windows 10, but actually this scenario is supported by using third-party programs such as those mentioned in How do you install the “Recommended” Windows Updates in Windows 10?

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A nice tutorial: How to: Install and Update Hardware Drivers in Windows 10.

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How to Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Windows 10

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This setting probably doesn’t work for scenario Auto Update Driver.

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How to Prevent Windows from Automatically Updating Specific Drivers

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How to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10

This setting is easily misunderstood and is discussed in topic https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/excluding-drivers-from-windows-update-in-win10-a-wu-option/.

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ch100

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How to temporarily prevent a driver update from reinstalling in Windows 10 (by using wushowhide to hide the driver)

Sometimes the above method will not work because the given driver reinstalls before wushowhide is finished. For such occasions, use the method at Preventing a driver from automatically installing from Windows Update on Windows 10 (when it keeps reinstalling before you can run the driver blocking tool).

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For the method in the second link, the “metered connection method” can probably be used instead of the “deny system write to \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder method” to prevent drivers from automatically downloading when wushowhide is running.

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In some cases (example), to prevent a driver from reinstalling it’s necessary to remove the driver from the Driver Store using pnputil.exe (or DriverStore Explorer, a graphical user interface for easier access to pnputil.exe)

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Windows 10: Turn On or Off Device Software over Metered Connection in Windows 10

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For control of drivers that would otherwise be installed automatically in scenario Auto Update Driver, you can use Woody’s Windows 10 update control method.

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Update drivers in Windows 10 (via Device Manager).

This method may find drivers not found in scenario Auto Update Driver because drivers can be of type Optional (see post #132099).

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ch100

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I am reading through it right now.
I see a reference to WUMT and another tool using the same WU API.
What is less clear to me is that updates like Silverlight which on Windows 7 are Optional, are offered on Windows 10 if Microsoft Update is enabled. Does that mean that Silverlight is no longer Optional in Windows 10? The binaries and update are exactly the same with the same metadata as far as I know. Skype, another Optional update on Windows 7 is no longer offered to Windows 10 as it does not apply.
On the other hand, I cannot find the relevant information about how Microsoft classifies and WU identifies the updates as being in one of the known categories. I know that they are uploaded in various folders on the WU back-end servers, but this should not be and is not enough criteria.
Other tools identifies all Updates other than Security as simply Updates and this is the case with WSUS too, although there is a distinction there between Critical and regular Updates. There is no distinction between Recommended and Optional though.

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Windows Update categories has a mapping of WSUS classifications into Windows Update categories. The mapping doesn’t include the WSUS classification Drivers though; however, post #132099 shows that drivers have a developer-supplied property “Automatically deliver and install this driver on all applicable systems” that seems to specify whether a given driver is considered Important or Optional in Windows Update.

Before Windows 10, Windows Update classified updates as Important, Recommended, or Optional. Since Windows 10 has no “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” checkbox, I believe that Windows Update now classifies updates (including drivers) as either Important or Optional.

From Windows Update installing drivers automatically (Feb 5, 2015):

‘[…] The new (fixed) behavior on the next Technical Preview build will not show “Optional” updates in Windows Update, although Optional drivers will be applied in a few cases.  For example, Optional drivers will be installed automatically after a clean install, or after plugging in a new peripheral. Otherwise, when we, or the hardware vendor, believe that specific drivers are ready to go to all customers, they will be published as Important updates on WU for automatic distribution. […]’

 

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Recommended updates still seem to exist for Windows 10. Evidence: see “Deployment: Recommended” for various Windows 10 updates at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/894199/software-update-services-and-windows-server-update-services-changes-in. In Windows Update in Windows 10, Recommended updates seem to be treated the same as Important updates. In the Windows Update API, for Windows 10 IAutomaticUpdatesSettings2::IncludeRecommendedUpdates property is always True; I believe the documentation is wrong, and that the meaning of this property is the same as “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” checkbox.

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I can now confirm from code using the Windows Update API on my Windows 10 virtual machine that some Windows 10 updates are in the Recommended category. Recommended updates are found by a search string of “IsAssigned=0 and BrowseOnly=0”.

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ch100

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I could only guess for example that KB3186568, Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 for Windows 10 Version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 for x64 is one of those Recommended updates. Another one is the well-known KB3150513. But you went further than me actually and ran code against such updates.
What I cannot tell without running code is the difference between the Recommended and Optional updates. They are all Updates for the tools which I use regularly, in this case WSUS, but I think WUMT too.

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Portable Update lets you specify the search string to use. Or you could modify an existing script such as the script at https://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2015/11/print-detailed-windows-update-info/.

Here are three search strings you could use:

1. Find Important updates (regardless of installation status): IsAssigned=1

2.Find Recommended updates (regardless of installation status): IsAssigned=0 and BrowseOnly=0

3. Find Optional updates (regardless of installation status): BrowseOnly=1

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A .vbs script that lists Recommended updates applicable to your system regardless of installation status: https://pastebin.com/HFdWLLxW.

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Like you, after reading the documentation at the URL provided, I believe that there are inaccurate statements in that documentation.

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