Prevent windows 10 from downloading and updating drivers

1. Stop Automatic Driver Install via Device Installation Settings. Using device installation settings is the easiest and basic way to stop Windows 10 from installing drivers automatically. The advantage of this method is that it works on Windows 7 and 8 too. Open the Start menu. Search for “Settings” and open it. Go to the “System About” page. Click “Advacend System Settings” under the “Related Settings” .  · Home Users: Stop Driver Updates by Editing the Registry. On Windows 10 Home, you can only change this option via the Registry. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise, but just feel more comfortable working in the Registry as opposed to Group Policy Editor.

Some administrators prefer to disable driver updates after deploying a Windows 10 image and installing all the necessary drivers. To do this, you can disable the installation of drivers using the GPO parameter " Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings " (discussed above) or with the command. Several users are determined to prevent Windows 10 from automatically updating drivers, even if Microsoft stated that this is a positive element, primarily for security reasons. The drivers are installed without the user's confirmation, leading to all kinds of problems, like unusable hardware, BSOD errors and all-around under performance, etc. If your drivers are often updated against your will after a Windows update, you can stop Windows 10 from updating drivers and prevent it from happening ever again. We should warn you that if you decide to stop Windows 10 from updating drivers, it will be up to you to always check for and install new drivers for all your hardware components.

In the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – System – Device Installation – Device Installation Restrictions. In the right hand pane, select “Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings” and set it to Enabled. Click/Tap on the Hardware tab and then click/tap Device Installation Settings. Click/Tap on ‘No, let me choose what to do’ to expand your other options. There are three other options to set. The Option ‘Always install the best driver software from Windows update’ continues to download and install drivers. Home Users: Stop Driver Updates by Editing the Registry. On Windows 10 Home, you can only change this option via the Registry. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise, but just feel more comfortable working in the Registry as opposed to Group Policy Editor.