I have a Windows 11 laptop with Xe graphics. I constantly have issues with Windows unhelpfully “upgrading” the current Intel graphics driver to an ancient version from Windows Update.
Device driver updates are disabled, but Windows insists on background installing an old WHQL driver regardless. How do I stop this?
I think there’s more than one way to disable disable driver updates and some methods are more effective than others. Have you disabled driver updates via the group policy editor?
Let it run then manually upgrade through device manager.
Disable Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available
That takes it off the firmware/driver upgrade path.
Should now populate under optional updates
i would like to point out, that if anything in the OS must be disabled by the end user through group policy, it is immediately a fail.
but especially something as simple as “hey dummy, do not update these drivers” should not require any interaction with the group policy editor.
every day i am more and more convinced that microsoft is determined to not make a real operating system.
Intel deserves some blame as well because they should be pushing the latest WHQL driver to Microsoft for distribution through WU.
i mean sure. but im giving intel only ~40% fault, since microsoft knows this is a common issue, not just with intel. and could easily regex the version number and stop doing that stupid thing.
Simmilar (same?) problem happens with AMD graphics drivers. Windows update insists on overriding some DLLs with problematic versions.
The real fail was back when Microsoft rolled driver updates into windows update… Windows update should be for windows. If they want to update drivers provided by MS that would be fine but automating third party driver updates was always doomed to cause countless issues.
im not even opposed to having a windows native driver update utility a manufacturer can post to. but i want to be able to decide when a driver updates. in my opinion driver updates should always be manual.
I feel the same way about all updates… Back when everything was manual it was way better. Companies had reason to release solid software rather than planning on inundating users with a steady stream of haphazardly crafted updates that may fix one issue while causing three others.
It also set the stage for the now universal practice of releasing software that’s buggy as hell and then scrambling for months after release to get updates out.
To stop Windows 11 from automatically installing an older Intel graphics driver, try these steps:
1.Use Group Policy Editor (for Windows Pro/Enterprise):
Win + R, typing gpedit.msc, and hitting Enter.Change the Registry:
Win + R, typing regedit, and hitting Enter.Block Specific Updates:
After making these changes, restart your laptop to see if the problem is fixed.
Not really - whenever this happens, Microsoft has been instructed by either the laptop manufacturer or chip maker to use this specific version of the driver. When you have driver optimizations configured, you may want to go for a specific version from a supplier rather than the latest and greatest (e.g. there are lots of power features configured in my XPS 15") On top of this there are multiple types of installs, sometimes driver upgrades are suggested, vs forced mandatorily.
Ultimately Intel should figure out how Nvidia did with their drivers and have all the optimizations within the generic drivers, just to avoid all this kerfuffle.
Is it just me or does this answer look as if it was written by a chatbot?
This is how I did it on my Win10 machine to stop M$ from uninstalling the E810-drivers