Realtek Driver Keeps Reinstalling?

spapakons said:

You must first replace the Microsoft driver with latest OEM driver, then restart and run the tool to hide the update before it has any chance to replace the driver again.

But the latest OEM driver is actually a Realtek one, so i don't think that would make any difference?

It will as this is official from Realtek, not the one Windows Update tries to install.

My aim - getting rid of Realtek R audio and getting Realtek HD audio (though probably works with any other desired driver)

So, I don't know is this is realavant to anyone anymore but i had this problem, searched every forum but everything I found was "just uninstall" "change group policies" etc. None of it worked, even deleting Realtek host keys. Bought my laptop a week ago, had Windows 10 Home on it with lots of Asus and Windows bloatware. My uni gives free Win 10 Education keys so I upgraded (! important - It wasnt a clean Edu but upgraded to Edu Home. The Home key was engraved in the laptop itself so when installing new Windows I had Home still and then upgraded ). Still, nothing worked. When I installed HD audio, it works for 3 minutes, turns off, restart is needed, R audio is back. What I did was get pirated Win 10 Pro (I don't encourage torrenting, maybe deleting Home key from Bios would have worked too). After getting actually clean Windows, not an upgraded Home, getting all the needed updates etc, I could install HD audio with everything I needed.

TL;DR - pre installed Windows Home melted that Realtek R driver in its system thus you can't uninstall it correctly. Getting an absolutely fresh Win install (not an upgrade) helped - HD audio is here for staying.

Hope this helps someone, as I had a few mental breakdows because of this cursed barrel sounding audio driver.

Installing a driver has nothing to do with the Windows version (Home, Pro or Education). Since the BIOS key is Home, you must first install Windows 10 Home (for a new installation) and then change the key to upgrade to Education or Pro. As for the driver, make sure you download directly from Realtek's site, then uninstall the old driver and disconnect from the internet. This way Windows Update won't be able to mess with the driver. Restart the computer, install the downloaded driver and restart again if required. Make sure the driver works OK and reconnect to the internet. Windows Update hopefully won't touch the driver as long as it is newer than that in Windows Update. But to make extra sure, you can use Windows Update Show/Hide Tool to search for available updates and then hide (disable) any driver updates found.

I'll have to disagree to spapakons. Windows does force "best" drivers, it did not matter if i had internet or not, i got the driver from official Realtek page. No matter what, I was forced to use Realtek R as the laptop obviously knows whats better for me. I disabled every type of driver updates I could find and nothing worked. Wiping laptop pre-installed Windows to 100% clean one was the only solution for me.

Traffy said:

I'll have to disagree to spapakons. Windows does force "best" drivers, it did not matter if i had internet or not, i got the driver from official Realtek page. No matter what, I was forced to use Realtek R as the laptop obviously knows whats better for me. I disabled every type of driver updates I could find and nothing worked. Wiping laptop pre-installed Windows to 100% clean one was the only solution for me.

Basically you wiped your computer and put in a pirated OS --- for what?

You decided to use the older obsolete Realtek HD audio driver instead of the newer Realtek(R) UAD driver.

sandyt said:

Basically you wiped your computer and put in a pirated OS --- for what?

You decided to use the older obsolete Realtek HD audio driver instead of the newer Realtek(R) UAD driver.

Yes, because Realtek R does not give equalizer, which was really needed for my laptop's poor audio quality. I have really defined hearing so I could not bear the deep, mushed audio