How do you select which Windows 10 updates to be installed?

mvaugeri · 03 Feb 2016

I have a problem with a video driver that wants to be installed, but when it's installed the system becomes unstable (it can hang or automatically restart). This is a long standing problem on certain ASUS notebooks with certain NVIDIA display adapters. The driver is for the NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT display adapter on an ASUS M70Vn with a 64-bit architecture. I am currently using the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, which provides a stable environment and works good enough for my purposes. How can I prevent the NVIDIA driver from being installed with the Windows updates? In earlier versions of Windows (for example, Windows 7), you could select which updates to install by putting a checkmark in front of the updates you wanted installed. Not so with Windows 10. All you get is a list of updates that are available and a click-box that says "Install now". I'm running Windows 10 version 1511 (OS Build 10586.0).

Brink · 03 Feb 2016

Hello mvaugeri, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

I'm afraid that there's not an option to select which updates to install by default in Windows 10.

If you like, you should be able to uninstall and hide the update though.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8...dows-10-a.html

mvaugeri · 03 Feb 2016

Thanks for the quick reply. The automatic install of Windows updates in Windows 10 is incredibly unfriendly. I'll let you know how things work out.

Brink · 03 Feb 2016

Depending on your edition of Windows 10, the tutorial below can help show you how to disable automatic updates.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8...dows-10-a.html

mvaugeri · 10 Feb 2016

I tried using the Windows Update Show-Hide diagnostic tool (wushowhide.diagcab) to hide selected updates and it didn't work. When I ran the tool it showed me the updates available and allowed me to select which updates to hide. However, when I enabled updates to be installed, the update I had selected to be hidden was installed anyhow. There is a discussion of this problem on the Microsoft Community website under the topic "Feedback on Win10 show or hide updates tool, working or not using, wushowhide.diagcab" (see http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...dd6a1f3?auth=1); the discussion started on 7/28/2015 and was last replied to on 1/19/2016.

The way I disabled updates was to make my Internet connection metered. The problem with that technique is that it blocks all updates, including important security updates. When I set the connection to "un-metered" all available updates will be installed, including the one I had blocked using wushowhide.diagcab. The update I tried to block is an NVIDIA display driver (NVIDIA GeForce 9605M GT on ASUS notebook), which makes my system unstable. This driver has been a widespread problem that has been around for a couple of years (at least back to 2009). On Windows 7 I simply never selected the update to be installed. Windows 10 doesn't give me that option. So far, I've been lucky that after the NVIDIA driver gets installed I've had enough time to uninstall the driver and meter the connection before the system hangs or reboots. And Windows 10 makes fixing the problem even riskier since it no longer provides a "safe mode" to start your system, which used to provide a way to fix such problems. How much more unfriendly can an operating system be than to force updates on you that will break your system. I'm disgusted.

Brink · 10 Feb 2016

mvaugeri,

I haven't tried this program yet, but you might see how the free Windows Update MiniTool may work for you to help with this. :)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta..._minitool.html

f14tomcat · 10 Feb 2016

mvaugeri said:

I tried using the Windows Update Show-Hide diagnostic tool (wushowhide.diagcab) to hide selected updates and it didn't work. When I ran the tool it showed me the updates available and allowed me to select which updates to hide. However, when I enabled updates to be installed, the update I had selected to be hidden was installed anyhow. There is a discussion of this problem on the Microsoft Community website under the topic "Feedback on Win10 show or hide updates tool, working or not using, wushowhide.diagcab" (see http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...dd6a1f3?auth=1); the discussion started on 7/28/2015 and was last replied to on 1/19/2016.

The way I disabled updates was to make my Internet connection metered. The problem with that technique is that it blocks all updates, including important security updates. When I set the connection to "un-metered" all available updates will be installed, including the one I had blocked using wushowhide.diagcab. The update I tried to block is an NVIDIA display driver (NVIDIA GeForce 9605M GT on ASUS notebook), which makes my system unstable. This driver has been a widespread problem that has been around for a couple of years (at least back to 2009). On Windows 7 I simply never selected the update to be installed. Windows 10 doesn't give me that option. So far, I've been lucky that after the NVIDIA driver gets installed I've had enough time to uninstall the driver and meter the connection before the system hangs or reboots. And Windows 10 makes fixing the problem even riskier since it no longer provides a "safe mode" to start your system, which used to provide a way to fix such problems. How much more unfriendly can an operating system be than to force updates on you that will break your system. I'm disgusted.

The updates you are selecting to NOT install (hide) may be prerequisites to ones you have chosen to install, and your choices are being overridden. Co-dependent updates may do the same thing. Notice how when doing updates WU will look for updates, download and install what it finds, and then look again? WU is checking to see if there any dependent or superseded updates.