permanently disable driver installations from Windows update

joker33 · 31 Dec 2020

Hi guys! I am running Windows 10 Pro 20H2. I have installed Windows at least 20 times over and over and following different tutorials to stop driver updates and automatic updates. The purpose why I am doing this is to prevent Windows update from installing ancient drivers such as the "Intel System" drivers etc.. (7 drivers in total)! But even though I followed all the steps from various tutorials, there are still drivers slipping through.

Below I listed all the things I tried. For each method (and all methods combined), the driver updates still slip through!

Disable driver installation in the "device installation settings".
Disable driver installation via group policy (gpedit)
Configure automatic driver updates in group policies and set it to "option 2" ("ask before downloading and installing updates"). This doesn't change anything though. I don't get asked before downloading drivers/updates.
Disable driver installation via regedit (see details at the end of this post)
Delete Windows Update Medic Service permanently and disable "Windows Update Service" and "Update Orchestrator Service". Then I set "Windows Update Service" and "Update Orchestrator Service" temporarily to "manual" while installing non-driver updates. I try to accomplish this by running the Windows Update Hide Tool. After hiding all driver updates, I let non-driver updates being installed by Windows update. But all those ancient Intel drivers still slip through - despite them being hidden by the hide tool. WHY???? How is this possible?
I tried WAU manager. This program also failed. Drivers still get installed by Windows update.

Please help me to permanently disable those driver installations from Windows update! I am desperate!

Regedit changes I did to disable driver updates:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Update]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Update\ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate]
"value"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

FreeBooter · 31 Dec 2020

You can install the latest version of the device drivers from the device manufacturer website this way you don't have to deal with installation of older drivers.

joker33 · 31 Dec 2020

Hi!

Thanks for your reply. Won't Windows Update install their old drivers anyway, even though manufacturer's driver are installed first?

FreeBooter · 31 Dec 2020

joker33 said:

Hi!

Thanks for your reply. Won't Windows Update install their old drivers anyway, even though manufacturer's driver are installed first?

What happening is the drivers are being updated the older drivers are the ones included with Windows 10 Microsoft updating them using Windows Update.

joker33 · 31 Dec 2020

So when I do a fresh Windows installation and if I install the latest manufacturer's drivers first before connecting to the internet and updating Windows, then Windows won't override the latest manufacturer's drivers with older Windows drivers?

PS: how come all the different options of disabling driver updates don't work? Why does Windows bother to include them at all?

FreeBooter · 31 Dec 2020

As long as Microsoft does not have the latest version of installed drivers it cannot and will not try to install any drivers.

When you install the latest version of a driver the older version of the driver will not be in use by Windows 10.

I have no idea why disabling driver update have not worked for you.

Paul Black · 31 Dec 2020

Hello @joker33,

You might find this useful . . .

WU - Driver Resources:

> How to Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10
> How to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10
> How to Prevent Windows Update from Updating Specific Device Driver in Windows 10
> How to Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Windows 10

As a general rule, where you have driver problems, and an update causes driver related issues, or delivers a later driver, it's quite often the case that reverting to the Last Released Driver for the hardware by the manufacturer helps or solves the problem.

I hope this helps.