Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Driver issues associated with the Windows 10 roll-out

Moderators: Site Moderators, FAHC Science Team

Post Reply
bruce
Posts: 20824
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by bruce »

Once you've installed the drivers from NVidia, Win10 may undo that process, killing FAH.
How to stop windows10 from-automatically updating device drivers
(Thanks, foldy)
heikosch
Posts: 110
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:31 pm
Hardware configuration: i7-3930K@4.1GHz
GTX680@1.275GHz

Q9300@2.4GHz
GTX460@800MHz
Location: Essen, Germany

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by heikosch »

Excellent advice, Windows 10 updates destroyed my nVidia Driver installation several times.

Heiko
Image Image
Image
bruce
Posts: 20824
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by bruce »

Actually, I just experienced the reverse situation. I installed the drivers recommended by NVidia .... 372.90 WHQL drivers on Win10-64 with a GTX960+GK740. I encountered nothing but trouble. Clean reinstall... more troubles. Finally I told WIndows to delete the drivers and reboot -- to let Microsoft install whatever they're distributing. Got 353.54 and it's working fine.
bollix47
Posts: 2963
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:04 am
Location: Canada

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by bollix47 »

FWIW

Another option for avoiding GPU driver updates:

http://superuser.com/questions/964475/h ... ics-driver

Around half way down the page.

Windows 10 Home users can disable it by creating a 32Bit DWORD called ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate (and under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate if you use a 64Bit Windows 10) and set the value ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate to 1.

I've used this method on a couple of my computers and, although it hasn't been implemented much more than a week, there have been some cumulative updates and the GPU drivers did not update but they would have without the above mod.

YMMV
foldy
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:43 pm
Hardware configuration: Folding@Home Client 7.6.13 (1 GPU slots)
Windows 7 64bit
Intel Core i5 2500k@4Ghz
Nvidia gtx 1080ti driver 441

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by foldy »

On Windows 10 Pro you can disable automatic windows updates using group policy editor:
gpedit.msc -> administrative templates -> windows components -> windows update -> configure automatic updates -> disabled

And there is the program O&O ShutUp which can disable automatic updates.
Yavanius
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 4:55 am
Location: 92408

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by Yavanius »

Didn't have the issue on the latest big update. Maybe Microsoft finally stopped overwriting the installed driver?
foldy
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:43 pm
Hardware configuration: Folding@Home Client 7.6.13 (1 GPU slots)
Windows 7 64bit
Intel Core i5 2500k@4Ghz
Nvidia gtx 1080ti driver 441

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by foldy »

In general it is working now. But some have still issues.
ipkh
Posts: 173
Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:03 pm

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by ipkh »

Any feature update will break your GPU drivers. That's when Windows really refreshes the system. If you are keeping up with Nvidia drivers it won't normally install driver updates. Only security issues and driver subsystem updates will require Windows Update to install them. Spectre and Meltdown patches and the move to a new Windows display driver model caused recent updates.
So now only Feature Updates will brick your GPU drivers OpenCL and CUDA installation.
Theodore
Posts: 117
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:07 pm

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by Theodore »

Well, at least Windows is thinking about giving the end user 30 days before installing updates.
Windows been making a real mess with win 10.
Almost as if they're pushing updates well before their time, and spend too little time to check if the new update don't make the OS worse than before.

I've experienced several bugs with Windows, with every update, and while most are fixed with one update, sometimes worse bugs appear with the next update...
Which is why I went with Linux.
My only issue with Linux is their wireless connection sometimes spontaneously resets, or disables, causing my PC to be unable to down or upload any new wus, until it gets reset.

I guess it's about the same as Windows' forceful updates
bruce
Posts: 20824
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by bruce »

My hunch is that Windows has a philosophical disagreement with those of use who run FAH.

[begin scarsam mode]
>> To them, the purpose of a GPU is to display the Windows Desktop (full stop). How would (re-)installing CUDA or OpenCL be a benefit to Microsoft? It would just be some extra Windows code that they'd have to spend time testing.
[end scarsam mode]
snapshot
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:25 pm
Location: Wiltshire, UK

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by snapshot »

And, having updated to W10 1903, I'm now unable to update my Nvidia driver. The PC is on 419.67 which was probably current when I originally built the PC but it's causing my GTX 1660 Ti to under-perform. So I want to update to the current 430.86 but the update process claims that version of Windows isn't supported! The other PC on 1903 already had 380.64 on it so is fine.
JimboPalmer
Posts: 2522
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:12 am
Location: Greenwood MS USA

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by JimboPalmer »

snapshot wrote:And, having updated to W10 1903, I'm now unable to update my Nvidia driver. The PC is on 419.67 which was probably current when I originally built the PC but it's causing my GTX 1660 Ti to under-perform. So I want to update to the current 430.86 but the update process claims that version of Windows isn't supported! The other PC on 1903 already had 380.64 on it so is fine.
I got that message and downloaded the Geforce Experience version. That version can update itself even though the standalone version balks. No idea why.
Tsar of all the Rushers
I tried to remain childlike, all I achieved was childish.
A friend to those who want no friends
MeeLee
Posts: 1339
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:16 pm

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by MeeLee »

Not always do the newest drivers offer a performance upgrade.
Try out an older 418 driver if you can.
snapshot
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:25 pm
Location: Wiltshire, UK

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by snapshot »

JimboPalmer wrote:
snapshot wrote:And, having updated to W10 1903, I'm now unable to update my Nvidia driver. The PC is on 419.67 which was probably current when I originally built the PC but it's causing my GTX 1660 Ti to under-perform. So I want to update to the current 430.86 but the update process claims that version of Windows isn't supported! The other PC on 1903 already had 380.64 on it so is fine.
I got that message and downloaded the Geforce Experience version. That version can update itself even though the standalone version balks. No idea why.
Thanks, that did it.
MeeLee wrote:Not always do the newest drivers offer a performance upgrade.
Try out an older 418 driver if you can.
Probably too old to support the card and wouldn't install anyway as described in my post.
JimboPalmer
Posts: 2522
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:12 am
Location: Greenwood MS USA

Re: Stop win10 from automatically updating drivers

Post by JimboPalmer »

snapshot wrote:
JimboPalmer wrote:I got that message and downloaded the Geforce Experience version. That version can update itself even though the standalone version balks. No idea why.
Thanks, that did it.
I wish I knew why that works, but voodoo answers are better than no answer.
Tsar of all the Rushers
I tried to remain childlike, all I achieved was childish.
A friend to those who want no friends
Post Reply