Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10  

I'm running Win10 1709, and when I select "No (your device might not work as expected)", the only thing that gets changed is PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork, which gets changed from 0 to 1, and is under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata

As another user mentioned, SearchOrderConfig doesn't get changed. So, these steps are incorrect and/or outdated.

Also, "Never_install_driver_software_from_Windows_Update.reg" sets SearchOrderConfig to 0, but my SearchOrderConfig was already set to 0, and WU updates drivers whenever it feels like it.

Would someone please clarify what the difference is between the effect of this tutorial's actions and the effect of the actions described in the tutorial "How to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10"?

Thanks.

Brink said:

Hello devnull, :)

They're both pretty much for driver updates being available in Windows Update, but just different settings.

This tutorial also includes the detailed information and icon seen in Devices and Printers.

Hi, Shawn. Thanks for your answer. That's what I was thinking, but because there are the two separate tutorials both dealing (mainly) with driver updates I thought perhaps I was missing something.

Please delete this entire post / how to. It is long outdated and not working anymore. Most options in this post are even not included anymore in Windows 10.

Ano said:

Ah, I can change the greyed out option from "Yes" to "No and vice versa by (un)ticking the option "Disable Retrieving Device Metadata" in DoNotSpy. The option is changed by changing this registry entry key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata!PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork" from "0" in "1".

But why is it still greyed out? The policies under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Device Installation all have the status "not configured"... But let's try something with the "Prevent device metadata retrieval from the Internet" policy...
I changed this policy from "Not configured" to "Disabled" and rebooted, then changed it back to "Not configured" and rebooted again.

To my surprise: option is not greyed out anymore!! Do not ask me why, this is Windows I guess ;-)
So people, in future you can also try to change this policy to get rid of this problem.

Thanks Brink for your help!

Thank you Ano! I had the identical problem and did exactly what you wrote in your 2nd paragraph, and that solved the problem! I also found out that the reboots are actually not required if you click on the apply button. I simply selected it to "disabled" click on "apply" and then selected "not configured" and click on "apply" and when I checked "device installation settings" it was enabled and active!

Always nice to hear