How do I prevent Windows from installing a driver?

I have an issue where Intel Management Interface Engine driver is preventing my laptop from hibernating or shutting down, I mean, the system just comes back to lock screen instead of turning off. If you search the web, you'll see this driver is well known to cause this issue, and the only solution I'm aware of is uninstalling it.

The issue is that even if uninstall this driver and disable automatic driver installation, Windows being stubborn as it is, will reinstall it after the next startup. I have already used the registry file hosted here that disables Windows Update drivers installation and also the wizard from Microsoft that allows the user to show or hide Windows updates, both to no success.

I don't know else do to prevent Windows from installing the IMEI drivers, several times my laptop battery got drained because I thought it was shut down when it wasn't. Thanks in advance.

ksio89 said:

...the only solution I'm aware of is uninstalling it.

Another possible solution may be to turn off Fast Startup.


Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

How do you shutdown? Power button, closing ...?
Did you look to see if under Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings - Advanced settings - Power buttons and lid is set correctly?

Bree said:

Another possible solution may be to turn off Fast Startup.


Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

I had already disabled it, but nothing.

Megahertz said:

How do you shutdown? Power button, closing ...?
Did you look to see if under Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings - Advanced settings - Power buttons and lid is set correctly?

Either by Alt+F4 window or pressing power button, which I set to hibernate. Closing the lid is set to do nothing, but it has no relation to this issue as this is how it was set before the issue arose. The result is the same whether I choose to shut down or hibernate, the system always reboots to lock screen. I noticed suspend doesn't work either, it shuts down the laptop instead, but then turns on into lock screen, exactly the same as if shutting down or hibernating.

I'll see if I can find an updated Intel Management Engine Interface driver somewhere. By the way, is there any way to see a log of shutdown process to check what might be causing this issue? Thanks for the help anyway, folks.

There are methods to troubleshoot problems with shutdown.
Recording /tracing the shutdown is performed generating files.
The challenge will be finding someone to interpret the results.


This is tutorial on turning off Windows updates of non-Microsoft drivers:

Enable or Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10


After a clean install of Windows there are some non-Microsoft drivers that are always installed.
This occurs without an internet connection.
I've not performed a recent clean install but maybe someone else may have this info.

I used IObit Driver Booster to update the IMEI driver (from version 11.7.0.1045 to 11.7.0.1057), then disabled it, and it seems the issue has been fixed. Anyway, thanks for the support, folks.