How to Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Windows 10
By default, Windows 10 will automatically search for, download and install driver updates for devices installed on the computer via Windows Update.
Device Installation Settings allow you to change if Windows is to automatically download recommended drivers and detailed information for your hardware and devices via Windows Update.
Windows can find and download two kinds of updates for devices connected to your computer:
Drivers - A driver is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware devices. Without drivers, the devices you connect to your computer—for example, a mouse or external hard drive—won't work properly. Windows can automatically check if there are drivers available for new devices that you connect to your computer.
For hardware that you've connected to your computer in the past, updated drivers might become available at a later date; but those drivers aren't installed automatically.
Information - Windows can download high-resolution icons for many hardware devices that you connect to your computer, along with detailed information about them, such as product name, manufacturer, and model number—even detailed information about the sync capabilities of a device. These details can make it easier for you to distinguish between similar devices that are connected to your computer, such as different mobile phones.
Update: Microsoft updates Driver Shiproom Schedule for 2020 in Windows 10
UPDATE 2/19/2020: Windows 10 driver updates will now be manual Optional Updates
Beginning with the August 2020 security update for Windows 10, when optional updates are detected by your device, they will be displayed on a new page under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View optional updates. That means you no longer need to utilize Device Manager to search for updated drivers for specific devices.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off to automatically download and install drivers and information for your devices from Windows Update in Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to make changes in Device Installation Settings.
Contents
- Option One: Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Device Installation Settings via Devices and Printers
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Device Installation Settings via System Properties
- Option Three: Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation using REG file
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Devices and Printers icon.
2 Under Devices, right click or press and hold on your PC icon with computer name, click/tap on Device installation settings, and close the Control Panel. (see screenshot below)
3 Select (dot) Yes (on - default) or No (off) for what you want, and click/tap on Save Changes. (see screenshot below)
4 You may also wish to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10.
1 Open Run (Win+R).
2 Type SystemPropertiesHardware.exe into Run, and click/tap on OK to open System Properties to the Hardware tab.
3 Click/tap on the Device installation settings button. (see screenshot below)
4 Select (dot) Yes (on - default) or No (off) for what you want, and click/tap on Save Changes. (see screenshot below)
5 You may also wish to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10.
The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD in the registry key below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata
PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork DWORD
0 = Off
1 = On
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_install_driver_software_from_Windows_Update.reg
Download
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_install_driver_software_from_Windows_Update.reg
Download
4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 If you like, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
8 You may also wish to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
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Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10
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New #1
I turned off as per the tutorial to block new Nvidia drivers which crash my machine. Despite using rollback for the drivers so I can use the stable Win 8 V347.88 driver if I manually check for updates it installs the new buggy drivers then I have to rollback again. Also when turning off I dont seem to get any other updates as well like Virus Definitions. What did I do wrong?
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New #4
In that case uninstall the driver again, then check to see if you have a C:\NVIDIA folder. If you do, then delete it as well. This folder contains the installation files for the NVIDIA driver, and could be used to reinstall from.
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New #5
My understanding is that the device-driver automatic installation doesn't work exactly like this.
If you set it to get drivers from Windows Update, I believe Windows gets drivers from Windows Update if Windows does not have an appropriate driver at the time of the device detection (PnP).
From what I can remember, setting this would not directly impact whether you get driver updates from Windows Update when Windows Update searches for updates on a regular basis; it would only impact whether you get drivers from Windows Update when the device is detected. Routine Windows Updates and device detection are two separate events.
I know this was the case at one point in the far past, but I do not know if this is still the case.
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New #6
Hello jfreemont, :)
It's to be able to get updated drivers all the time from Windows Update if/when available. The link below from Microsoft is for Windows 7, but still applies.
Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware
You can check Windows Update at any time to see if it found new drivers and icons for your hardware, especially if you recently installed a new device. If you want to have Windows Update automatically check for the latest drivers and icons, click Yes, do this automatically (recommended).
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New #7
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New #8
Yeah, that would be nice. There was a setting for it in the Windows Update settings from the Control Panel, but of course that's long gone in Windows 10 now.
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New #9
Think this has worked now. I still get a desktop notification "Cannot install updates tap here to fix" but if I ignore that and ignore the install button on windows update the nvidia drivers dont get updated but windows updates still seem to get installed according to history.
Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10
How to Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: Windows Update & Activation
19 Feb 2023
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