How to prevent windows reinstalling newer drivers?


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Hello, long time since I posted on Neowin. 😀

 

I have a problem with the latest Realtek audio drivers which causes a blue screen every time I try and shut down, reboot or sleep my laptop.  So I manually selected the previous driver in the device manager screen.  It then works fine.  However Windows keeps reinstalling the newer version without asking me!

 

In the pic below, the version I want to stick with is the 27/11/2018 version, and it keeps updating me to the 15/01/2019 version.   Can I remove the 2019 version from the list here somehow? It does not appear in the Add/Remove Programs list.

 

OS is WIndows 10 1809

 

VsRFsAW.png

 

 

Thanks!!

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2 hours ago, hornett said:

Hello, long time since I posted on Neowin. 😀

 

I have a problem with the latest Realtek audio drivers which causes a blue screen every time I try and shut down, reboot or sleep my laptop.  So I manually selected the previous driver in the device manager screen.  It then works fine.  However Windows keeps reinstalling the newer version without asking me!

 

 

There are a lot of different ways to achieve what you want. But on the new Win 10 versions, it's not a good idea to downlevel drivers if it can be avoided.

 

Did you install the 2019 version manually or did you get it pushed from Windows Update?

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1 hour ago, DevTech said:

There are a lot of different ways to achieve what you want. But on the new Win 10 versions, it's not a good idea to downlevel drivers if it can be avoided.

 

Did you install the 2019 version manually or did you get it pushed from Windows Update?

Actually, downlevel actually helps with new Win10 drivers. I think there is a way to disable that...

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I downloaded & installed it using Snappy.  The drivers on this machine (Acer Swift 15 Ryzen 5) are absolutely terrible, so I'm constantly looking for updated versions to try.

 

When you say there are a lot of methods to achieve it,  what are those? Only thing i can think of is somehow locating the .inf files and nuking them.  But how to find the right ones?

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13 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

Actually, downlevel actually helps with new Win10 drivers. I think there is a way to disable that...

They changed the way drivers work around 1803

 

A lot of drivers are now executed inside a type of Hyper-V VM environment for increased security which can really confuse some drivers so in general the latest should be located and for sure the ideal case is a driver that has a compile date on the DLL newer than the 1809 release...

 

 

10 hours ago, hornett said:

I downloaded & installed it using Snappy.  The drivers on this machine (Acer Swift 15 Ryzen 5) are absolutely terrible, so I'm constantly looking for updated versions to try.

 

When you say there are a lot of methods to achieve it,  what are those? Only thing i can think of is somehow locating the .inf files and nuking them.  But how to find the right ones?

Step one would be to locate a full install of the latest driver direct from the manufacturer and then see if you still have issues.

 

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13 minutes ago, DevTech said:

They changed the way drivers work around 1803

 

A lot of drivers are now executed inside a type of Hyper-V VM environment for increased security which can really confuse some drivers so in general the latest should be located and for sure the ideal case is a driver that has a compile date on the DLL newer than the 1809 release...

They did? OK. *writes in book*

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5 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

They did? OK. *writes in book*

That one and also turning off SMB 1 would be catching users by surprise big time if they had a clue why certain things just don't work anymore

 

Both are improving security in a big way and would be buried in the long list of security update info that nobody reads...

 

Security "fixes" that remove backwards compatibility in big ways need some sort of different call-out notification for which there is no industry standard or even awareness

 

It's great that Windows 10 is free forever but that deal means the kind of update cycles we had every two years are now slipstreamed in here or there and can be quite disruptive and its fundamentally unavoidable.

 

Remember when device manufactures were so lazy they didn't bother to update their drivers until months after a new Windows version came out? Vast public opinion got them off their lazy rear ends, but now with "Endless Windows 10" we have no clue which device manufacturers are "playing ball" and staying in lockstep with the spring and fall releases and which ones are still jerks...

 

 

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So here is a source for the full install of 8619: (and others)

 

https://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=0&func=select&id=508&orderby=2&page=3&lang=en

 

WARNING: that site can have a lot of pop-ups if your browser isn't configured, but it's a legit site and a very valuable driver resource site.

 

You didn't specify your hardware, so if you have Dolby, you need these older ones:

 

https://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=352&func=fileinfo&id=3555&lang=en

 

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The purpose of downloading and installing a full driver install package is that all the tiny little support utils and misc garbage the driver might need is installed. BSODs do result sometimes from missing bits.

 

Many auto-updaters, including Windows Update miss these details...

 

---------------

 

So after trying the correct latest driver, if it still crashes we can go through different downlevel paths...

 

 

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20 minutes ago, DevTech said:

That one and also turning off SMB 1 would be catching users by surprise big time if they had a clue why certain things just don't work anymore

I heard SMB1 a lot recently. Both in Windows and Network forums...

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