Windows 7: how do you block automatic driver install?

Hello...
I have worked this puppy near to death now. I have determined that the latest nvidia drivers from 258 up cause my hdmi to disappear. So I uninstall all the drivers and then when I attempt to install the older drivers which lets me see the hdmi in sound manager autoinstall rights over it and stops the older drivers from installing. I turned off autoinstall of updates , ask me before installing downloads. I removed the drivers from the directory, nvidia. I looked in the inf folder but still it installes the drivers. I know it will work under the older driver. MAn this is really agravating. I found that if I let my built in sound work it nukes the hdmi ports also. I have sb 710 azalia built on and also external sb 24 bit.
Please, Some body save me.....
Thanks

Have you turned off automatic install as explained here: Drivers - Turn Off Automatic Driver Installation ?

When you uninstall the old drivers are you doing it from Control Panel > Remove Programs?
Uninstall PhysX and 3D first, then the driver. The control panel will go with the driver.
You will be asked to restart. Don't.

Next, go into Windows Explorer and delete the entire C:\NVIDIA folder.
Now restart.

On restart, Windows 7 will find your video card and install a generic WDDM1.1 driver. Let it. You will be asked to restart. Do it.

Once back on the desktop you can now install the nVidia driver version you want.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for replying,
I did read the tutorial. I did all the suggestions for turning off autoinstall and it kept doing it anyways. I read a post elsewhere that showed where to nuke the driverstore files. I did that. I always use the program uninstall through control panel. I didn't know not to restart though. I finally got all the drivers in I guess. It shows the 4 nvidia hdmi ports numbered 0-3. But not plugged in. Then I have my sb710 built in Azalia hd sound that actually works. Then I have my sound Blaster 24bit external.
When I was finally able to block the autoinstall i was able to keep all of these. If I let the newest drivers install they take out alll the hd sounds. No clue as to the why tho.
I ask you this.. Should I do what you suggest with removal of the drivers and try this? I erally want it to work.
I will wait for your reply before I do this tho ok?
Thank You very much.

I would only uninstall the current drivers if you have a need to install new (or different) drivers. If you've got everything working as you like right now then don't change anything. If there was a previous driver that did work the way you want then you can make the change.

The method I outlined is for clean installing video card drivers. If you want to install different drivers then that is what you do. Remove the old drivers, remove the driver files, restart, let the generic driver install, install new nVidia drivers.

I can't guarantee this will solve your HDMI problem. I do not have an HDMI capable video card so I have not played with that yet. But as I understand it from other posts the HDMI output, including the sound, is handled by the video card and it's driver. The on-board sound has a separate driver and handles only normal sound output through the computer speakers, etc. Maybe I am not understanding your issue completely.

Thank You again,
I spent a little time with the video card rep from PNY yesterday and learned several things. If the hdmi port is working correctly then it would display a screen right from pc boot. Since mine doesn't it is the ports problem. I put the card in y son's puter which runs vista and no display. I have discovered a lot about this stupid hdmi. I would rather have not spent the amount of time doing it but I learned a lot nonetheless. I learned that no drivers are needed until into OS. I think the removal of the hdmi thru the sound manager is probably the Nvidia driver determening since the port wasn't responding then it wasn't there. But wowser....I am going to rma the card and let them do it. I will probably purchase a new one just because. But a better newer model.
Thanks for the help sir.
Yours,
Donnietr

Post back when you get the new card. I'd like to know if it was a defective card and if that solves the problem. It can help others, and I'm sure I will be playing with HDMI on my PC, and soon!