Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs any required device drivers as soon as you connect to the Internet. This eliminates the need to manually download and install drivers. However, if you are using older hardware devices such as old printers or video cards, the default drivers that Windows 10 installs may cause problems. In addition, some of windows users 10 want to simply prohibit the download of drivers for specific hardware, video card cards or others. To deal with this, just follow the instructions below and you can easily stop Windows 10 from downloading and installing drivers for a specific selected hardware device.
Since we want to block driver updates not for all devices, but for a specific hardware device, we need to find out its unique hardware identifier. To watch it, open "Device Manager" by right-clicking on the button Start.
Once you have opened Device Manager, find the hardware for which you want to prevent automatic updates and driver installation. In my case, I will choose the graphics card in my old laptop. Right click on the device and select the option "Properties".
In the hardware properties window, go to the tab "Intelligence"and then select from the dropdown menu under "Property".
This action will show you the unique hardware identifiers of the target device. Select all specified identifiers, right click and select the option "Copy".
We will need these identifiers several times, so we will insert them and save them to a text file for convenience.
Prevent driver installation for a specific device using Group Policy Editor.
Press Win + R and type or copy and paste - and press key Enterto open the Windows 10 Local Group Policy Editor.
After opening the Group Policy Editor, go to the " Computer Configuration -\u003e Administrative Templates -\u003e System -\u003e Device Installation -\u003e Limitations on Device Installations.»
Now find a policy and double click on it to change its properties.
In the policy properties window, enable it by selecting Includedand then click on the button "Show"in the Options category.
This action will open a window. In this window, you must enter all the hardware identifiers copied earlier one by one.
After the data is filled in, click on the button "OK"to save your changes. In the future, if you have other hardware devices for which you want to stop or disallow driver updates, just add new hardware device IDs in the same order.
In the main window of the program, click the button "OK"to save your changes.
Reboot the system, we have disabled updating video card drivers in Windows 10. Note, keep in mind that Windows will still download a driver for this hardware, but will not install.
To return the default settings, set the policy checkbox to " Not set" or " Disabled».
Preventing driver installation for a specific device using Registry Editor
If you are using Windows 10 Home OS, then you need to change the registry. To block driver installation, press Win + R and type or copy and paste regedit to.
Follow the next path.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SOFTWARE \\ Policies \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ DeviceInstall \\ Restrictions \\ DenyDeviceIDsIf you don't have partitions:
- DeviceInstall
- Restrictions
Just create them.
In the created section, create a new parameter named " 1 »
Double click on the newly created parameter and enter one of the hardware identifiers that we copied earlier and click on the " OK».
Since we have several hardware identifiers for our device (video card), we need to create three more string parameters and name them for example 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. For each value, enter an additional hardware ID and save it. Once you're done with everything, it should look something like this. As you can see, I have created some string parameters and added the IDs of my video card.
Reboot the systemfor the changes to take effect. To get everything back, just delete the created partitions.
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It is a bad habit to install driver updates for hardware components of your computer even when you don't need to. However, you can always prevent the installation of Windows updates or block or hide individual updates. Pro or Enterprise users can also use the Group Policy Editor to prevent device-specific drivers from being installed.
Note that configuring Group Policy for a specific device allows you to block both automatic and manual updates drivers. Therefore, if you want to update the driver yourself, you will have to disable the corresponding policy, update the device and then reinstall the Group Policy.
In order to block the installation of drivers for a device, you need to perform two main steps. First, we will use Device Manager to find the hardware ID. We will then work with the Group Policy Editor to define an update blocking rule that matches the device ID. Before starting the setup, make sure that the stable version of the driver is installed on the computer and the device is working correctly.
1. Find the device ID
The first step is to find the identifier of the device whose driver updates you want to block. To do this, we will use the Device Manager. Enter in the search bar of the Start menu or use the item "Device Manager" of the context menu of the Start button (invoked by the right mouse button).
In Device Manager, find the device for which you want to block driver updates. Right click on it and select Properties.
Click the Details tab.
From the drop-down list, select the "Equipment ID" option to display the device-related identifiers.
Now all that remains is to copy the ID values \u200b\u200bso that you can access them when configuring Group Policy rules. The easiest way is to copy the ID to a text file. Select all values \u200b\u200bwhile holding down the Shift key and use the familiar Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V shortcuts to copy and paste, respectively. Be sure to save your changes to a text file for future access to this information.
2. Block installation and update of device drivers
Now that we know the device IDs, you can use the Group Policy Editor to make changes. We remind you once again that this method works only in windows versions Pro and Enterprise. Group Policy Home Editor is not available on Windows.
It is a powerful tool that, if used improperly, can disrupt your system. So use with caution. If your computer is part of a corporate network, then it is likely that it is running domain rules that have a higher priority than local rules.
Log in to the device administrator account and open the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc to the search bar of the Start menu and pressing Enter.
In the editor window, follow the path Computer Configuration\u003e Administrative Templates\u003e System\u003e Device Installation\u003e... On the right, select the entry "Prevent the installation of devices with specified device codes" and double-click on it.
In the policy settings window, select the "Enabled" option and then click the "Show" button.
In the Output Content window, in the Values \u200b\u200bcolumn, enter the device IDs. Only one ID is allowed at a time, so copy each ID one by one from text file and insert into the "Values" column. When you have finished entering the identifiers, click OK. If you are blocking updates for multiple devices, you can add hardware IDs for all devices to this window.
Then, on the policy settings page, click Apply and OK to save your changes. The only way to test if the rule is working is to try to update the driver manually or wait until Center windows updates will try to install available updates. An error message will appear when trying to update.
Since the device is registered with the system, Windows Update can download driver updates for the device. However, their installation will not be performed, instead in the window Windows Update an error message appears. You can always hide a specific update if you don't want to watch it in Update Center.
If at some point you change your mind and want to update the device again, go to the Group Policy Editor and disable the policy. This will need to be done even if you manually install driver updates.
When the policy is disabled, all identifiers are removed. If you re-enable it, you will need to re-enter all the ID values. Therefore, if you need to install updates only for a specific device, you can exclude its identifier and leave the policy active. Also, don't forget to save all IDs to a text file.
Of course, this is not the easiest solution, but using the Group Policy Editor gives you more options than disabling updates altogether.
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By automatic updating of Windows 10, users can mean one of two things: regular in the top ten and free upgrade your Windows 7 or 8 to the latest version. This article discusses disabling Update Center in operating system Windows 10.
Automatic download of updates
Microsoft regularly releases new patches for their operating systems. These may include updated drivers, fixing critical bugs, new features, removing dangerous vulnerabilities, and so on.
By default, after installing the OS, the function of automatically loading these patches is enabled. Computer in background downloads everything required files from the developer's servers, and installs them before shutting down. Several unpleasant disadvantages of this service follow from this:
... If you have a low speed, downloaded packages can interfere with your comfortable work on the Internet.
For these reasons, many users want to stop auto-update your OS.
Configuring Windows 10 Update (Pro only)
A special service is responsible for the automatic download of new patches - Update Center... If you want to change any configurations (for example, enable or disable autoinstallation), you need to open the menu Center:
Now all updates (except critical security updates) will not be installed automatically. You can decide for yourselfwhen they should be turn on.
Initially, the Center settings worked only for the owners Windows 10 Pro, but in one of the last patches it was added for Home version. If you have installed Home, and changes to the Update Center settings are not available, you need to wait until the corresponding patch is installed on your computer.
App updates from the Windows Store
Another limitation for version owners Home - inability to disable auto-update of programsinstalled from the Windows 10 Store. Initially, this feature was available exclusively on Probut update KB3081448 corrected this situation.
To disable you need to run Score 10s and click on your icon account to the left of the search bar. In the menu that opens, select " Options". Set the switch opposite to the item " Update apps automatically"To position" Switch off».
If this function is not available on your computer, it means that you are the owner Windows 10 Home and haven't downloaded the latest patches yet. Install all available updatesto be able to stop auto-updating apps from the Store.
A trick for Wi-Fi connections
If you work for laptop (or your computer is equipped with Wi-Fi module), you can indirectly prohibit installing any patches on your Windows 10 operating system. This method works great on Pro, and on Home publications. The only limitation is you must be connected to the internet via wifi.
Follow the instructions:
The essence of this trick is that the operating system will assume that your Internet is currently not unlimited and will not download any updates... In this way you can stop installation absolutely all updates.
Disable autoloading drivers
If you don't want to trust your operating system download latest versions drivers for your devices, this function can also be disabled. To do this, do the following:
Drivers downloaded with Windows 10 updates will no longer install independently.
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Windows 10 is an operating system that has one distinguishing feature from other operating systems. This updates the system and drivers by default without notifying the user. As a result, as practice has shown, many problems arise from updating current and working drivers to newer and unsuitable versions. To prevent driver updates in Windows 10, follow these guidelines.
Blocking driver updates via Control Panel
To prevent automatic driver updates, you need to click "Start" and select "Control Panel". Next, select the type of display "Small icons" and click "System". Click on the link "Change parameters".
A new window will open. Go to the "Devices and Printers" tab. Select your PC, right-click on the image and select "Device Installation Options".
In this section, there will be only one request "Automatically download manufacturer apps and custom icons ...". We change the mark to the answer "No". Click "Save".
Reboot your computer.
Editing Registry Editor to Disable Driver Updates
You can disable driver updates by using Registry Editor. To do this, press "Win + R" and enter "regedit" in the "Run" line.
A new window will open. Go to the branch "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", "Software", "Microsoft", "Windows", "CurrentVersion" and "DriverSearching". If the last folder is not there, you need to right-click on "CurrentVersion" and select "New" and "Section". We assign an identical name to the section.
Then we save the changes and reboot the PC.
Disable driver updates through the local group policy editor
Windows 10 Local Group Policy Editor includes a driver update feature. To disable it, you need to do the following. Press "Win + R" and enter "gpedit.msc".
Go to the section "Computer Configuration", then "Administrative Templates", "System" and "Driver Installation". Double-click to open the "Disable Windows Update Request ..." option.
A new window will open. We put the mark "Enabled" and click "OK" or "Apply".
Reboot your PC.
Using any of the above methods, you can disable automatic update drivers and avoid many problems in the future.
Installing drivers has always been a task that is understandable for people who understand computers, but not for ordinary users. That is why on most PCs you can find a situation when the drivers were installed only at the time of the first start of the system and were no longer updated. At the same time, Windows updates come, new applications and games come out that require updated drivers. To make it easier for Windows 10 users to keep the software of computer components up to date, Microsoft has introduced an automatic driver update feature into its operating system.
At first glance, automatic driver update in Windows 10 is a clear plus, but in reality it is not always the case. The operating system loads the software it thinks is the best. The supplier of such drivers is Microsoft itself, while the hardware manufacturer can release a better version on its website, but the user will not receive it. Situations are not uncommon when after automatic update windows drivers the computer begins to experience problems at the software level. For example, a driver error can lead to problems with sleep, hibernation, or a black screen, which can only be eliminated by a system restore.
There are a lot of options for problems that can be caused by a non-optimal automatically loaded driver, and some users prefer to disable this functionality. Below are the most simple waysHow to disable automatic driver updates in Windows 10.
Using the Show or Hide Updates utility
The easiest way to disable automatic driver updates on Windows 10 is to use the official utility released by Microsoft specifically for this purpose. A program called Show or Hide Updates appeared on the official website of the American corporation almost a year after the release of Windows 10. To use it to disable automatic driver updates, you must:
The utility will do all the necessary work and disable automatic driver updates for the selected devices.
Disable driver updates via system options
The operating system provides the ability to disable automatic loading and installation of drivers for hardware through parameters. To do this, the user must have administrator rights for the computer. Further it is necessary:
Unlike the previous method, this option is bad in that it does not allow you to disable automatic updating of Windows 10 drivers for selected devices.
Disable updating of individual device drivers through the registry
Slightly more complex option than the previous one, but much more convenient in a situation when you need to disable driver updates only for certain devices. Its essence lies in the fact that a command is created through the registry to prohibit software updates for an individual device. This is done as follows:
Important: If a device has several IDs, or you need to enter information about several devices, you need to create new parameters, the names of which will be 1 more than the name of the already created one.
Similarly, you can disable automatic driver updates in Windows 10 for specific devices. In this case, at any time, you can go into the registry editor and delete the created parameters so that the devices again receive automatically new software from Microsoft.
