How to completely remove Realtek audio drivers?

quietfanatic · 12 Aug 2015

I managed to get rid of the Realtek driver on my system without disabling all driver updates.
1. Go to the Device Manager, go to the properties of the audio device, go to the Driver tab, and click Roll Back Driver. This will keep Windows from automatically reinstalling it on reboot, but it won't stop Windows Update from installing it. It should also give you a generic Microsoft audio driver that works perfectly fine, or at least it did on my laptop.
2. Use the Show/Hide Updates tool mentioned in thoraster's post: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

reddice · 13 Aug 2015

I dud that but the tool dud not work. I hid the drivers using that tool but after a few minutes it reinstalled the buggy Realtek drivers and install them when I reboot the system.

quietfanatic · 15 Aug 2015

reddice: did you use the Roll Back Driver button? Getting rid of it any other way will result in it coming back after the next reboot.

I'd like to clarify: Rolling back the driver doesn't uninstall the driver from your system, it only stops using it. The Realtek driver is still sitting in my Programs and Features list, but my audio device is using the Microsoft driver. I'm not going to uninstall the Realtek driver because it might come back if I do.