How to disable card driver updates in windows 10

Automatic driver updates are a useful feature that ensures that drivers that have been tested by Windows are up to date. This approach is rational, since the user does not need to waste his time searching for an update, and the latest version of the programs, according to the developers, guarantees optimal operation of the computer systems. However, this is not always the case. There are often cases where automatic updates worsened the performance of the PC.

Fortunately, as in previous versions of operating systems, it is possible to disable automatic driver updates in Windows 10, although initially, it seems, it was impossible to do this... So, if you have not yet decided to roll back from Windows 10 to previous versions, then go ahead!

How to disable driver updates in Windows 10

In this article we will tell you about 2 ways that will allow you to forget about annoying, unexpected “updates”.

Disabling updates through hardware settings

This is the easiest way to disable driver updates. Ideal for beginners. However, it is worth noting that not all Windows 10 systems can use this particular method, as there may be limitations.

First of all, you need to go to the “Equipment” tab, where the setup will take place. This is done as follows:

1. In the window that appears, select the item additional system parameters;

This is where the method ends. Just select the “No, provide choice” option and the function will stop working:

Don't forget to set additional parameters as indicated in the screenshot. Otherwise, the operating system will continue to install some drivers automatically without the user's permission.

The method is universal, since it can be used not only on Windows 10. The algorithm is the same for versions 7, 8.1 with some differences in design. Save the settings and restart the computer.

Disabling via the registry

Disabling driver updates through the registry is somewhat more difficult, since you will have to launch the editor, search and change the value, but when the operating system does not have a policy editor, only this method will help.

Save all accepted changes and restart the PC.

Conclusion

Above are the two most effective methods that will allow you to relatively safely disable such a function. When using the second method, the main task is not to make a mistake with the choice of section, since the editor contains a huge number of branches. If you accidentally change the value, you can disrupt the operation of the OS.

Installing drivers has always been a task that is understandable to people who understand computers, but not to ordinary users. This is why on most PCs you can find a situation where the drivers were installed only when the system was first started and were no longer updated. At the same time, Windows updates come, new applications and games are released that require updated drivers. To make it easier for Windows 10 users to update the software of their computer components, Microsoft has introduced an automatic driver update feature into its operating system.

At first glance, automatic driver updates in Windows 10 are a clear plus, but in reality this is not always the case. The operating system loads the software it thinks is best. The supplier of such drivers is Microsoft itself, while the hardware manufacturer may release a better version on its website, but the user will not receive it. It is not uncommon for situations when, after automatically updating Windows drivers, problems with the computer begin to occur at the software level. For example, a driver error can lead to problems with sleep mode, hibernation, or a black screen, which can only be resolved by restoring the system.

There are a huge number of problems that can be caused by a non-optimal automatically loaded driver, and some users prefer to disable this functionality. Below are the easiest ways 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 perform all the necessary work and disable automatic driver updates for the selected devices.

Disabling driver updates through system settings

The operating system provides the ability to disable automatic downloading and installation of hardware drivers through settings. To do this, the user must have computer administrator rights. Next you need:

Unlike the previous method, this option is bad in that it does not allow you to disable automatic Windows 10 driver updates for selected devices.

Disable driver updates for individual devices through the registry

A slightly more complex option than the previous one, but much more convenient in a situation where you need to disable driver updates only for individual devices. Its essence lies in the fact that a command is created through the registry to prohibit software updates for a specific 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 certain devices. At the same time, at any time you can go to the registry editor and delete the created settings so that the devices again automatically receive new software from Microsoft.

Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs all necessary 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 drivers that Windows 10 installs by default may cause problems. Also, some of the Windows 10 users want to simply prevent the downloading of drivers for a specific hardware video card card or others. To deal with this, simply 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 must find out its unique hardware identifier. To view it, open "Device Manager" by right-clicking on the button Start.

Once you have opened Device Manager, locate the hardware for which you want to prevent automatic driver updates and installation. In my case, I will choose the video 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 drop-down menu under "Property".

This action will show you the unique hardware IDs of the target device. Select all the specified IDs, right-click and select the option "Copy".

We will need these identifiers several times, so we will paste them and save them into a text file for convenience.

Prevent driver installation for a specific device using the Group Policy Editor.

Press Win + R, and enter or copy and paste - and press the key Enter to open the Windows 10 Local Group Policy Editor.

After opening the Group Policy Editor, go to the " Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Restrictions on Device Installations.»

Now find the policy and double click on it to change its properties.

In the policy properties window, enable it by selecting Included, and then click on the button "Show" in the Settings 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 changes. In the future, if you have other hardware devices for which you want to stop or prevent driver updates, simply add new hardware device IDs in the same order.

In the main program window, click on the button "OK" to save changes.

Reboot the system, we have prohibited updating graphics card drivers in Windows 10. Note, keep in mind that Windows will still download the driver for this hardware, but will not install it.

To return the default settings, set the policy checkbox to " Not specified" or " Disabled».

Prevent 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 enter or copy and paste regedit to .

Follow the next path.

If 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 IDs that we copied earlier and click on the button OK».

Since we have multiple hardware IDs for our device (video card), we need to create three more string parameters and name them like 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 created several string parameters and added the IDs of my video card.

Reboot the system for the changes to take effect. To get everything back, simply delete the created partitions.

One of the options in Windows 10 Update is to search for and automatically download drivers for computer components. In most situations, it is quite useful: the system itself installs the necessary software, and you don’t even have to think about it. However, sometimes Windows Update selects incorrect drivers for your device, which leads to numerous problems. Unfortunately, there is no obvious solution to this problem, such as a cancel installation button. In this article, we will tell you how to block the automatic downloading of a specific driver or even limit the search for drivers through Windows Update.

Disabling driver updates using a Microsoft utility

Some time ago Microsoft released a special utility - Show or hide updates- which allows you to block the installation of a driver update. The program checks for new software versions and displays a list of them. The user can check the box next to updates that he does not want to install, and Windows Update will ignore them.

The downside of the utility is the inability to block the update of any drivers at all. Only their specific versions that were available at the time the program was used are ignored. If a new version of software appears in the Microsoft Update Catalog, it will be automatically installed unless you have time to disable it too.

You can view blocked updates and remove restrictions at any time:

How to disable driver updates for a specific device

This method allows you to block the installation of any drivers for a specific component of your computer. It is noteworthy that the limitation will apply to both the system and the user: you will not be able to update the driver even manually. The advantage of this method compared to the previous one is that it blocks the installation of any driver versions, and not just a specific one. The downside is that if you want to prevent many drivers from being updated, it will take quite a lot of time, since you will have to collect and specify data for each device.

How to find hardware data

First you need to collect information about the computer component codes.

Now you need to block driver installation for all ID data.

How to prevent driver installation using the Local Group Policy Editor

This method is available in Windows 10 Pro and higher editions. Users of Windows 10 Home and Home SL will have to use the method described a little below.

To cancel changes, just change the parameter value from Included on Not specified.

How to prevent driver installation using Registry Editor

Windows 10 Home and Home SL users can use the Registry Editor.

To get everything back, simply delete the created keys and folders.

How to prevent automatic installation of drivers in Control Panel

A fairly old way to disable the search and loading of any drivers is to check the appropriate box in the system properties, in the Control Panel. Unfortunately, there are reports that this does not always work, but it’s still worth a try (especially since the method is approved by Microsoft).

Previously, in the same window there was a parameter Never install drivers from Windows Update, but it was removed in current versions of Windows 10. However, the corresponding option exists as a local group policy or a registry key. We'll show you how to use it.

How to disable driver installation using the Local Group Policy Editor

This option is only available for Windows 10 Pro and above.

To cancel changes, switch the setting to Not specified.

How to disable driver installation using Registry Editor

This option is for Windows 10 Home and Home SL.

To get everything back, delete the created key or change its value to 1 .

How to disable Update Center's search for driver updates

This method disables the search for any driver updates. Note that this option is only available starting with Windows 10 Anniversary Update (build 14393 and higher).

How to prevent searching for driver updates using the Local Group Policy Editor

This method only works in editions of Windows 10 Pro and higher.

To return the default settings, set the parameter to Not specified.

How to prevent searching for driver updates using Registry Editor

This method is suitable for owners of Windows 10 Home and Home SL editions.

To undo the changes you have made, delete the created key or change its value to 0 .

Now you know how to disable driver updates in Windows 10.

By automatic updating of Windows 10, users can mean one of two things: regular in the “top ten” itself and a free update of their Windows 7 or 8 to the latest version. This article discusses disabling the update center in the Windows 10 operating system.

Automatic download of updates

Microsoft regularly releases new patches for their operating systems. These may include updated drivers, fixes of critical errors, new features, removal of dangerous vulnerabilities, and so on.

By default, after installing the OS, the automatic download of these patches is enabled. The computer downloads all the necessary files from the developer’s servers in the background and installs them before shutting down. This leads to several unpleasant disadvantages of this service:

For these reasons, many users want stop auto update your OS.

Setting up Windows 10 Update (Pro version only)

A special service is responsible for automatically downloading new patches - Update Center. If you want to change any configurations (for example, enable or disable auto-install), you need to open the menu Center:

Now all updates (except for critical security updates) will not be installed automatically. You can decide for yourself when they should turn on.

Initially, the Center settings worked only for owners Windows 10 Pro, but in one of the latest patches it was added for Home versions. If you have installed Home, and changes to the Update Center settings are not available, you must wait until the appropriate patch is installed on your computer.

Windows Store app updates

Another limitation for version owners Home - inability to disable auto-update of programs installed from the Windows 10 Store. Initially, this feature was available exclusively on Pro, but update KB3081448 corrected this situation.

To disable you need to run Shop 10s and click on your account icon to the left of the search bar. In the menu that opens, select “ Options" Set the switch opposite the item " Update apps automatically" to position " Switch off».

If this function is not available on your computer, it means you have Windows 10 Home and haven't downloaded the latest patches yet. Install all available updates to be able to stop auto-updating applications from the Store.

Trick for Wi-Fi Connections

If you work for laptop(or your computer has Wi-Fi module), you can indirectly prohibit the installation of 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 Wi-Fi.

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.

Disabling driver autoloading

If you don't want to trust your operating system downloading the latest drivers For your devices, this feature can also be disabled. To do this, do the following:

Now drivers downloaded along with updates for Windows 10 will not install themselves.

Video on the topic