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How can I disable automatic driver / device installation?
Hi. This is not exactly win 10 specific question, i had same problem in win 7, but now that i'm on win 10, that problem is still there.
here's what's going on:
I have high-end gaming PC with GTX 980 and 4k monitor and 1080p monitor as secondary.
4k Monitor is connected via DisplayPort and other monitor is using HDMI
Both of those monitors have built-in speakers (actually i don't think 1080p monitor has speakers)
But here's the problem, windows 10 keeps automatically installing HDMI audio drivers and 50% of the time when i boot my system, all my software defaults to the stupid HDMI sound.
This is extremely annoying and i'm about to pull my hair out over this. All my media players default to monitor audio, even tho windows does not select it as "default device".
Also even tho other monitor doesn't have speakers, system still thinks that the monitor has speakers and sets it as audio device.
Also when i record gameplays using shadowplay or other recorder, lot of times there's no audio on videos, because screen recorders also default to that dumb hdmi audio.
it's really annoying me, i can't be bothered to check audio every time i do something.
I really need a way to tell windows 10 to STOP doing that.
Here's what i've done so far:
1. under playback devices, i have DISABLED both of the monitors as playback devices.
2. I have tried uninstalling + disabling drivers for both monitors in "device manager"
3. i used local group policy to force windows not to install drivers (gpedit.msc > administrative templates > system > device installation), then i grabbed the group ID from device manager and entered it there to prevent windows from installing drivers for any audio groups.
After step 3, drivers were not installed, but windows still shows both monitors in "playback devices", only difference is that in device manager it says that this device does not have drivers installed, but they're still showing up in "playback devices", therefore all my software is STILL able to use them as playback and some of my software, like winamp, still defaults to them.
Edit: forgot to mention, that if I disable both of them in playback devices, windows automatically re-enables them at some point. probably at boot, but i can't be bothered to check every few seconds, i just want windows to STOP trying to tell me what's best, i like my Asus STRIX 7.1 headset + 7.1 Hi-Fi home theater speaker system, i don't need some tiny jurassic stereo speakers lol.
I want to punch whoever made this feature. I mean .. what kind of an caveman would buy high-end gaming PC with GTX 980 + 4k monitor and NOT have a proper sound card + headset? Did those low-brainers in microsoft seriously think that anyone using high-end gaming PC, would like to use HDMI as primary audio? that's just ridiculous!
Please help me get rid of this annoying problem. I think my only option is to force windows to think that i'm not using HDMI so it won't even detect my monitors as audio devices, is that possible?
Thanks