...Hmmm
I mean...
Direct answers and all but... I just want to know exactly what this setting does. Does it disable driver updates completely, or does it put them in the optional section of Windows updates? I don't want to miss out on driver updates, but I don't want Windows to be in complete control.
Last edited by TONPumper; 07 Apr 2021 at 17:56.
At the same time, I want my Windows drivers to update, like the BlueTooth driver.
AFAIK optional driver updates should only be installed in those specific situations where a hardware problem might be resolved by doing so. Whether a driver update is the optional type is determined solely by the update catalog of Microsoft, i.e., the settings you use in Windows have no effect on whether an update is an optional update, as the 'optional' here is a property that is inherent of the actual update itself.
Normally, if you keep your drivers updated manually by going to the hardware component manufacturer's official website to download the correct installation packages from there, Windows Update should not give you a hard time trying to mess with drivers. I mean, by the time Windows Update has finally figured out that there exists a newer version of a driver, typically you will have already installed a much, MUCH newer one, excepting only maybe if you forgot to check. Windows Update doesn't automatically revert drivers back to some older version, but then, you know as well as I do that there can be occasional screwups involved with that.
If the component manufacturer offers its own automatic driver updater thingy, then you could also decide to use that, as it might help you to save the time it takes to manually search for some of the packages you want. But, the Intel Driver Support Assistant (DSA) doesn't always find the latest driver, either. For example, I had to go on Intel Download Center to manually download the latest driver for my laptop's Intel WiFi AX201. Whereas on my 2nd laptop, which uses an Intel WiFi AC3165, updating the WiFi driver wasn't needed because, although the version of the driver package had been superseded, the version of the actual driver that applies to this specific hardware component had not been superseded. So the DSA was correct when it reported that my WiFi driver was already up-to-date on my 2nd laptop, but on my 1st laptop the DSA still got it wrong.
That being said, I have set my connections─both the WiFi and the ethernet─as metered, and, I manually check for Windows updates by going into Windows Update. It automatically starts scanning for updates immediately each time when I go into Windows Update, but it doesn't download them automatically. Instead, it just lists any updates that it finds, and, when it does, a Download button is shown below them. So each time when it finds a new driver update, immediately I can check what exactly it is that it is trying to let me do. Some time ago on my 2nd laptop it wanted to let me install an outdated Nvidia GeForce driver. So then I decided to let it proceed, and, next, I rolled this driver back to its latest version. Windows Update now assumes that the driver I have is still the outdated one that it has installed, so it doesn't bother me again with this update. With anything that's made by Microsoft, the McGuyver way of fixing things usually always works.
I have disabled automatic updates.
WUMT found a list of driver updates, which could be either installed or hidden.
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