Cancel automatic driver installation in windows 10. Disable automatic driver installation in Windows
So and we have a computer and an HP LJ 1018 printer. After an unsuccessful attempt to reinstall or update the printer drivers by the client, in the menuDevices and printers next to the printer icon yellow exclamation mark. The device refused to work normally.
Usually in such cases, I do not waste time digging into the printer settings, but immediately completely, cleanly, reinstall the driver and the rest of the printer software.
First of all, I deleted everything related to the HP printer from the computer, then I started installing the driver, since the client carefully left the installation disk in the CD-ROM. And here the problems began. Well, of course, if everything was so simple, it is unlikely that a person would begin to seek help.
Searching Windows Update. It can take some time…
When the setup program asked to connect the printer via USB, the Windows driver installation wizard was launched, which began to try to automatically search for a suitable driver on the Internet.
After 15 minutes of waiting, there was a feeling that search for updates stuck, given that this long search was not required in principle, because the driver was on my disk. Patience was exhausted and I decided to cancel the operation in order to permanently disable the automatic driver search function in Windows 7.
By the way, the situation often arises that Windows Driver Update Center installs incorrect drivers for the equipment, or even, after a very long search, reports that “ Failed to find driver«.
So, my advice to you is to disable this Windows feature and install drivers downloaded from the official websites of your equipment manufacturers, or, as in this case, from the disk that came with the printer .. Subscribe!
How to disable automatic driver search in Windows 7 Update?
So, let's begin. Let's go to the menu Start, right click on Computer, choose Properties( Or just press the key combination Win + Pause ).
In this menu, you need to select " Never install drivers from Windows Update". Don't forget to click Save.
Endlessly searching for updates in Windows Update - [Solved]
So, after disabling the automatic search for drivers in the update center, when the printer's USB cable was plugged into the system unit, Windows skipped this useless operation and immediately proceeded to search for the driver on the disk, where, of course, it was successfully found and installed within 20 seconds.
Printing a Test Page - wow, it works!
By the way, perhaps the problem can also be solved by simply disconnecting the Internet cable. Try it, write about the results in the comments!
Sometimes automatic installation of drivers in Windows (in Windows 7, 8, 10) for all the hardware that is on the computer is, of course, good. On the other hand, sometimes there are cases when you need to use the old version of the driver (or just some specific one), and Windows forcibly updates it and does not allow you to use the desired one. We will perform these actions on Windows 10.
In this case, we will disable automatic installation and install the required driver.
Method number 1 - disable auto-installation of drivers in Windows 10
First, press the combination of WIN + R buttons - in the window that opens, you need to enter the gpedit.msc command and then press Enter. If everything is done correctly, the "Local Group Policy Editor" window should open.
In the branch that we opened in the previous step, there should be a parameter " Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings". It must be opened, select the option" Enabled"And save the settings, click OK.
Actually, after this, the drivers will no longer be installed on their own.
Now, by the way, if you connect any device to your computer, and then go to the device manager ( Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/Device Manager), then you will see that Windows does not install drivers for new devices, marking them with yellow exclamation marks. Because if this policy setting is enabled, then Windows cannot install or update drivers for devices that are not specified in the policy settings.
Method number 2 - disabling auto-installation of new devices
You can also prevent Windows from installing new drivers in another way ...
First you need to open the control panel, for this we do, as indicated in the screenshot, then go to the " system and safety", then open the link " System".
It remains only to switch the slider to the parameter " No, the device may not work properly", then save the settings.
Windows 7 has built-in automatic driver installation tools. When connected to the Internet, the operating system itself installs all the necessary drivers on its own!
But quite often, with drivers automatically updated in Windows 7, the equipment does not work correctly - you need to install drivers from the hardware manufacturer.
Below we will consider how to disable automatic download and installation of drivers from Windows Update - for this we will change the device installation settings.
Open the "System" window.
Depending on the version of Windows 7, this can be done:
Start --> Control Panel --> System.
Start --> Control Panel --> System and Security --> System.
In some cases, just press the Ctrl + Pause-Break keys.
Picture 1
In Figure 1, this is done along the path: Start --> Computer --> Property --> System.
The System settings window will open.
Figure 2
On the left side of the window that opens Systems click on the link Additional system settings.
Figure 3
In the System Properties window that opens, select the tab Equipment, press the button.
Figure 4
In the opened window Device installation options enable options No, provide a choice And Never install drivers from Windows Update(Install drivers from Windows Update if they are not found on the computer - at your discretion).
Next, press the button Save. For the changes to take effect, restart the computer.
It is also useful to disable Windows Update while installing the driver you need. Sometimes these actions have to be carried out in Windows Safe Mode with Administrator rights.
You should also understand that the steps above only disable the automatic download and installation of drivers from Windows Update. If you are not satisfied with the drivers previously installed on any device, then they must be completely removed, sometimes with the complete removal of the device itself along with the drivers and, after rebooting, install it again with the drivers offered by the manufacturer.
Perhaps not everyone knows that Windows 10 automatically downloads drivers for your equipment after a clean installation by default. On the one hand, this is very good for those who are not very computer savvy and do not know how to properly install drivers themselves, but for more experienced users, this function will be completely unnecessary. Since the download takes place in the background and the user does not see which driver is being loaded. Well, or you already have the necessary drivers that you have prepared in advance, then you also will not need Windows 10 to download something itself.
Therefore, in this article I will tell you how to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10. We will analyze the most convenient methods, and you will choose the best one for yourself. As always, I will show all the methods using the latest build of Windows 10 as an example. Well, as always, I recommend updating to the latest stable build of Windows 10.
Method 1: How to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10
This means that Windows 10 will not automatically download the manufacturer's apps and custom icons that are available for your devices. This method is simple and fast. But I also recommend using it with one more of the following methods.
Method 2: How to disable automatic driver installation using the Group Policy Editor
Method 3. How to disable automatic driver installation using the registry editor
If such a section or parameter does not exist, then simply create it. Well, of course, to return everything back, just change the value back to 1, which should be the default.
Method 4. How to disable driver installation in Windows 10 using a utility from Microsoft
Since many Windows 10 users have been thinking about this ever since the transition to a new operating system, Microsoft has released the Show or Hide Updates utility. In fact, this is the troubleshooter that we are used to seeing in Windows. It looks for all the drivers that you may have problems with and gives you the opportunity to turn off driver updates, you can turn off one at a time.
You can download it on the Microsoft website at the link.
In this article, we looked at ways to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10. In principle, I myself consider this innovation interesting. Since in most cases Windows 10 downloads good drivers, but if you have problems with drivers then this article will be interesting for you. Do not forget to subscribe to updates and share the article on social networks.
Quite often, Windows 10 installs driver updates for your computer's hardware even when you don't need it. However, you can always prevent Windows updates from being installed or block or hide individual updates using the Show or hide updates utility. Pro or Enterprise users can also use the Group Policy Editor to prevent device-specific drivers from being installed.
Please note that the Group Policy setting for an individual device allows you to block both automatic and manual driver updates. 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 to look up the hardware ID. We will then work with the Local Group Policy Editor to set an update blocking rule that matches the device ID. Before starting the setup, make sure that a 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 ID of the device whose driver updates you want to block. To do this, use the Device Manager. Enter the Start menu in the search bar or use the "Device Manager" item of the context menu of the Start button (called by the right mouse button).
- In Device Manager, find the device whose driver updates you want to block. Right click on it and select Properties.
- Go to the tab Intelligence.
- Select an option from the dropdown list Hardware ID to display the IDs associated with the device.
- Now all that remains is to copy the ID values so that you have access to them when you configure the Group Policy rules. The easiest way is to copy the ID to a text file. Select all values by holding down the Shift key and use the familiar Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V shortcuts to copy and paste, respectively. Don't forget to save your changes to a text file so you can access this information in the future.
2. We block the installation and updating of device drivers
Now that we know the device IDs, you can use the Group Policy Editor to make changes. Once again, we remind you that this method only works in Windows Pro and Enterprise versions. On Windows Home, the Group Policy Editor is not available.
is a powerful tool that, if used incorrectly, can disrupt the system. So use with caution. If your computer is part of a corporate network, then it is likely that it runs domain rules that have a higher priority than local rules.
- Sign in to the device administrator account and open the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc in the Start menu search bar and pressing Enter.
- In the editor window, follow the path Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation >. On the right, select an entry and double-click on it.
- In the policy settings window, select the option Included, then press the button Show.
- In the window Content Output in the Values column, enter the device IDs. Only one ID can be entered at a time, so copy each ID from the text file one by one and paste it into the "Values" column. When you have finished entering IDs, 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 the changes. The only way to test the rule is to try updating the driver manually or wait for Windows Update to try to install available updates. An error message will appear when you try to update.
Because the device is registered with the system, Windows Update can download driver updates for it. However, updates will not be installed, instead an error message will appear in the Update Center window
If at some point you change your mind and want to update your device again, then go to the Group Policy Editor and disable the policy. This will need to be done even if manually installing driver updates.
When you disable a policy, all identifiers are removed. When you turn it on again, you will need to enter all the ID values again. 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 makes Windows 10 updates more flexible than disabling them completely.
Note: As an alternative solution, you can use the ABC-Update application, a functional tool for managing Windows updates.