Stopping Windows 10 from updating your graphics driver

We know, we suffered this, you are not alone, brother!

Windows 10 has some great features like device detection and driver recognition. It is safer, it is faster, it is cheaper, and it works like a charm. From here we recommended every time people asks for a gaming station, even we had a couple of post to achieve a solid and fast simracing PC in almost no time. Anyway, even the brightest product has some darker points, like privacy and… driver auto updates.

Simracers usually have an static configuration to assure that their limited spare time is spent in what they need; racing. Steering wheels, display drivers, HMD’s and many other devices don’t need constant upgrades or improvements, but Microsoft and third partners doesn’t seem to understand this.

If your system keep forcing to an undesired update, here we have a couple of methods to avoid it. Both tested and working:

Method 1: Temporarily hold a driver update out of the scope. 

To temporarily prevent the driver or update from being reinstalled until a new driver or updated fix is available, a troubleshooter is available that provides a user interface for hiding and showing Windows Updates and drivers for Windows 10. You can obtain and run the “Show or hide updates” troubleshooter by downloading it from the Microsoft Download Center.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download the “Show or hide updates” troubleshooter package now.

When you click on the download link, you will be prompted to open or save wushowhide.diagcab. Opening wushowhide.diagcab will launch the troubleshooter. Then click Next to proceed and follow the instructions provided by the troubleshooter to hide the problematic driver or update.

Method 2: Remove drivers from being updated from Windows Update (recommended)

Search for gpedit.msc in your Start button menu (or Cortana box) and open it. Look for Windows components inside System tree and one of the last elementsWindows update. You should see a bunch of policies ready to be changed. You only have to enable that one which says specifically what we are looking for:

Do not include drivers with Windows Updates

Double click, enabled, apply and OK. You can also grasp your chance with policies and turn off auto restart for updates during active hours a few rows above. You’re welcome 😉