How to stop drivers being auto-installed from Windows Update?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew McDonald
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A

Andrew McDonald

Every so often ATI releases a new driver for their graphics cards. So I download it and uninstall
the previous one, as you're supposed to. This requires a reboot. When the machine has restarted,
Windows recognises that there's a device with no driver - but instead of just using a small default
graphics card driver, it uses my broadband connection to go straight to Windows Update without
asking me, downloads a driver for the card, and installs it! This is an utterly pointless step since
I'm about to install the latest driver anyway, which usually won't be on Windows Update for months.

How can I stop Windows automatically installing drivers from Windows Update like this? A prompt
before dowload and another before install at least would be courteous.

Andrew
 
I find that when I disconnect from the net the update wizard has nothing to
install other than its plain vanilla XP ATI driver.This is what I do when I
upgrade my Radeon drivers.
peter
 
Thanks for the tip. I guess disabling my network connection is a good idea before the reboot.
Annoying to have to remember this though, I wonder if there's any way to change the behaviour.

Andrew
 
Wonder why ATI suggests you uninstall the old before you put in the new. Not
to start a flaming war or anything but, I am using an oldish GForce 4 card.
I have installed over 20 sets of drivers for this card, always "on top" of
the old ones. Never had any problems.

What you state is one of the reasons I have never purchased an ATI video
card!

Now, if they were ever to change......

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Andrew, you can go to Classic Control
Panel>AdminTools>Services>Automatic Updates>rt click and
select Prop>In the Startup Type Box choose Manual.
 
Andrew said:
Every so often ATI releases a new driver for their graphics cards. So I download it and uninstall
the previous one, as you're supposed to. This requires a reboot. When the machine has restarted,
Windows recognises that there's a device with no driver
Click to expand...

I find that - contrary to what ATI says - you can just run their install
and it will upgrade. But the alternative is to run MSConfig.exe and on
the Boot Ini page select BASEVIDEO and reboot. That will use basic
drives, and you can now do the uninstall and reboot, still using these.
Now uncheck it, exit but do *not* reboot (perhaps tidy up any left over
ATI files) and run the new install. Next time you reboot - after the
install - there will be a message about `Troubleshooting`. Check the
`Do not show again` box and exit
 
Presumably ATI suggests it because it's good practice for any program. Old parts of programs should
not be left lying around on a system, bits may be discontinued and therefore not be upgraded by an
install, yet may be still referenced somewhere. It's especially important with device drivers
because they're so fundamental to proper PC operation.

Don't you think it's rather a silly reason not to get an ATI card though? Not least because Nvidia
themselves tell you to do exactly the same thing:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/..._55_Graphics_Drivers_Release_Notes_v56.72.pdf
page 31 of the PDF / 25 of the document. I haven't checked their driver readmes, but I guess this
effectively limits you to an XGI / S3 / Matrox card for your next upgrade :-)

Andrew
 
Thanks for the reply Rich, but doesn't this merely disabling automatic downloading of critical
system updates, not device drivers?

Andrew
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to remember that. Still, I'd prefer some prompting from Windows before
it autodownloads, it would be the easiest solution. Can you pass that on as a request at all?

Andrew
 
Actually I use ZoneAlarm to cut my Internet connection.Somehow I have it set for
"stop all internet" on startup
peter
 
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