Sometimes, when using new hardware on computers with Windows systems on board, you need to disable automatic driver installation. Windows 10, like all its predecessors, installs control software and driver databases, which often only result in the hardware not working correctly or not working at all. Because of this, all kinds of black and blue screens appear, the computer does not wake up from sleep and hibernation. Very often, even conflicts between installed devices can be observed.
The following are some basic techniques that even ordinary users can use. Looking ahead, one can note the important fact that most of the main actions in a veryhighly resembles the deactivation of the automatic update of the control software, so you can use some methods to solve this problem.
How to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10 through system settings?
To disable this feature in Windows, the first step is to disable it in the main system settings. To do this, call the standard panel for managing the main parameters and options of the system (in Windows 10, the easiest way to do this is through the Run console with the control command), go to the devices and printers section, and then call the context menu via RMB on the system unit icon.
In it, activate the option for installing equipment (devices), then in the window with two options, activate the item indicating that you do not need to install drivers automatically.
Similarly, through the RMB on the icon of the computer terminal, you can go to the properties section, call up additional parameters, click the device installation button on the equipment tab, and then set the ban in the same way. The method is completely identical to the first.
How to disable driver installation in Windows 10 through group policy?
You can also set the ban in the group policy settings (gpedit.msc). Speaking of how to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10 in this way, keep in mind that you can use two options.
The first one is to go through the PC configuration, administrative templates and the system section to get to the device installation restrictions subfolder, and on the right go to editing the prohibition parameter, enable it, and click the "Show" button below.
Now call the "Device Manager" (devmgmt.msc), select the required equipment, go to the details tab through the RMB menu and the properties item, select the display of the equipment ID in the list and copy the longest line with the VEN and DEV parameters.
After that, return to the policy editor and paste the copied data into the appropriate fields, then save the changes.
But in this way a ban is set only for one or several devices. How to disable automatic driver installation for all hardware in Windows 10 so that the Update Center does not participate in this? Easy too!
In the same section of the system, select the driver installation section, and on the right, for the option to disable the request to use the Update Center, set the enabled value. But this method is usually used to set bans on updating control software.
Note: after setting the necessary options, you do not need to restart the entire computer system, but to be sure,that the parameters will be changed in full, rebooting won't hurt.
Deactivate driver installation via registry
Now let's see how to disable automatic driver installation in Windows 10 using the system registry settings (regedit), which duplicates policy settings, but has a higher priority.
In the editor, through the HKLM branch and the SOFTWARE subfolder, go to the policies section, find the DenyDeviceIDs section there, on the right in the window for each device create a string parameter with a name from "1" and higher (in order) and a value as a copied string from Device Manager.
Note: if you want to disable access to the "Update Center" of the system, find the DriverSearching subsection, in the right part of the editor create a 32-bit DWORD parameter with the name SearchOrderConfig and a value of zero. When performing any actions in the registry, a system restart is required.
Methods using policies and the registry are very similar, only in the registry, deactivation of a parameter is usually done by disabling it by setting it to zero, and in policies, the prohibition is enabled, which is why many people constantly get confused.
Disabling System Update Services
Just in case, you can generally deactivate the "Update Center" itself. To do this, in the services settings (services.msc) find the following components:
- Windows Update Center.
- Windows installer.
- Installermodules.
- Delivery Optimizer.
For each service, when editing options, first click the active process stop button, then select the disabled start type from the list and save the changes.
What to do with unsigned drivers?
In theory, the actions taken are sufficient in most cases. It is easy to see that they are quite similar to the deactivation of the installation for drivers of all kinds of updates that may be contained in some packages intended for the system itself.
But when you try to install control software that does not have a digital signature or an appropriate security certificate, the system may begin to resist. In addition, the installed software may contain dangerous undetectable virus codes. But how to disable the installation of unsigned drivers in Windows 10, which could theoretically harm the system itself (not to be confused with deactivating signature verification, since this is the opposite action, which will install any driver)? You can do this as follows.
In group policies, already in the user configuration, through the sections described above, find the driver installation folder, and on the right, for the digital signature parameter, first enable it, and then set either a warning or a complete block as an action. After that, it will be impossible to install any unsigned driver into the system.
Note: if you need to deactivatecheck, in the above parameters, just disable the ban or use the advanced boot options, and then in the action menu, select the very disabling of constant signature checks.
To protect your system from integrating drivers of dubious origin or their updated modifications, use automated applications, among which you can recommend unique DriverPack Solution and Driver Booster packages. In the process of searching for missing or updated software, they turn only to the official resources of software developers and device manufacturers, or use their own databases containing only legal drivers and completely safe, verified software.
