[SOLVED] How to Disable GPU Driver Updates in Windows Home?

[Appletax]

Solution: none for Home. Have to have Win Pro and use Group Policy.


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Articles will tell you how to disable ALL driver updates in Windows Home.

Or, they'll tell you how to disable specific drivers using Group Policy (LOVE).

Is it accurate that it's impossible to disable specific drivers in Windows Home?

Only interested in disabling GPU updates. Got a newer laptop that Windows Updates wants to put keep at an older version of AMD Radeon drivers. I like using the latest ones straight from AMD.

I thought about hiding the driver update, but that would probably not work long term, especially if a different driver comes out.

Plus, with Win 10/11 (maybe even 8), you can't just check for updates and then pick what you want to install - they just start installing right away, usually.

Ugh.

 

[Porthos]

Download wushowhide - MajorGeeks

wushowhide is a troubleshooting app from Microsoft that allows you to show or hide Windows Updates. wushowhide is no longer available from Microsoft. See our video tutorial for more information.

m.majorgeeks.com

 

[Appletax]

Download wushowhide - MajorGeeks

wushowhide is a troubleshooting app from Microsoft that allows you to show or hide Windows Updates. wushowhide is no longer available from Microsoft. See our video tutorial for more information.

m.majorgeeks.com

Very cool!

Hopefully it plays well with Windows 11 as it has not been updated since 6/26/2021.

Sure wish it were built into Windows.

Edit: when another GPU update comes around, that one will be installed - you'd have to keep using this program hoping that Windows won't sneak in a GPU update. This is not a useful program to put on my customer's PCs

The only good option is Group Policy on Win Pro. Then you can completely shut it down forever.

Gonna have to let Windows Update do whatever it pleases with the drivers on Win Home lol.

 

[NviGate Systems]

What about System Properties, Advanced? I can't remember the tab, one gives you the option to automatically update device drivers.

 

[britechguy]

I have several machines using AMD Radeon Graphics, and I use AMD Radeon Software on each of them to maintain the graphics driver updates.

AMD, while not as frequent as Intel, still puts out updates a lot more frequently than they ever seem to make it to Microsoft for Windows Update (or get processed by Microsoft for use by Windows Update if they are supplied in a timely manner).

I have never had Windows Update try to install any Radeon Graphics driver since starting to use this software probably around 5 years back.

The machine I'm typing from has been upgraded to Windows 10 Pro, but it's hardware twin is sitting less than 3 feet from me and it's still Windows 10 Home. Both systems have Radeon Software managing the Radeon Graphics and neither is interfered with by Windows Update. I have no group policy tweaks in place on the Pro box.

 

[Appletax]

I have several machines using AMD Radeon Graphics, and I use AMD Radeon Software on each of them to maintain the graphics driver updates.

AMD, while not as frequent as Intel, still puts out updates a lot more frequently than they ever seem to make it to Microsoft for Windows Update (or get processed by Microsoft for use by Windows Update if they are supplied in a timely manner).

I have never had Windows Update try to install any Radeon Graphics driver since starting to use this software probably around 5 years back.

The machine I'm typing from has been upgraded to Windows 10 Pro, but it's hardware twin is sitting less than 3 feet from me and it's still Windows 10 Home. Both systems have Radeon Software managing the Radeon Graphics and neither is interfered with by Windows Update. I have no group policy tweaks in place on the Pro box.

My laptop is a 2021 Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. It has AMD iGPU and Nvidia dGPU. I install Radeon Graphics drivers from AMD while offline, and then later, when I am only, Microsoft installs an older driver and makes the Radeon software stop working. I use gpedit to disable its ability to do this.

Also happened the other day on a client's 2019 Acer laptop - Windows replaced the newest driver from AMD that I installed with an older version.

Quite annoying.

 

[britechguy]

Quite annoying.

Serious suggestion: Report this via Feedback Hub.

 

[Metanis]

AMD and Nvidia both need to be smacked up alongside the head for releasing massive driver updates way too often for most machines.

I'm no Greenie but it costs money for millions of machines to be downloading packages approaching 1GB every 2 to 4 weeks. And when you read the release notes the changes can be very minor and only affect a few games (which means they likely only affect a VERY few users).

And if you are going to release new drivers, why can't they only require the Deltas be downloaded and applied rather than forcing a download in which 99.5% of the code is identical to what you already have installed.

/rant off

RE: OP's original complaint, you need to spank AMD, they aren't tagging their driver packages correctly. It's totally not Windows fault it detects the older package as the preferred WHQL driver.

 

[britechguy]

RE: OP's original complaint, you need to spank AMD, they aren't tagging their driver packages correctly. It's totally not Windows fault it detects the older package as the preferred WHQL driver.

And a big, AMEN!, to that. I have noticed the same behavior on rare occasion, and it's virtually always because the drivers cannot be distinguished by WU as newer because that information is not correctly exposed to WU.

WU generally allows any "newer version" that what it has to stand if it can detect that the version is newer.

For myself, I haven't had issues with AMD Radeon drivers under Win10 Home or Pro for the R7 Graphics or (and it's been a while) R5 Graphics.

 

[Blues]

I think in AMD you can opt for their beta drivers or something I am not sure if those drivers would lack the WHQL if so that might be what the problem is. I also wonder if the AMD utility isn't stopping the Windows updates or functioning properly because of the dedicated GPU.