How do I stop Windows from auto-detecting hardware and then installing drivers for it? I'm trying to upgrade my sound card and video drivers. I uninstall the current "windows default" drivers, reboot, and before I can even start the installation process for the drivers I've downloaded, Windows detects the hardware and installs the default drivers on its own.
open devices & printers from start menu
Right click the PC icon\
choose device installation settings
Check: No, let me choose what to do
Check: Never instal driver software from windows update
then
Open device manager
find your sound card
Uninstall the driver and check the box "Delete the driver" for this device
Press OK
reboot
That's only for drivers from windows update - it doesn't stop 7 installing the drivers from it's driverstore.
Uninstall the driver - don't reboot - install your chosen drivers.
It's always advisable to reboot your machine, however, the problem is to completely remove the driver from the system. I would disabled the device, and then uninstall the driver. Reboot and see if the device is still disabled. Then go into registry
HKLM > Software > Windows > CurrentVersion > Uninstall.
Check that the driver is not there (if it's there, just delete it).
Then enable the device. See what it's doing. If it scans and fail to find the driver. Go ahead and install the new driver.
This really does seem ridiculous. MS seems to be punishing the educated/computer-literate user by making the process of installing the driver of your choice a true hassle. When you've got to get into the registry to stop windows from forcing you to use its driverstore, soon to be outdated, driver... this is just wrong.
When it comes to my video driver I have to reboot. I have to uninstall, boot into safe mode, remove all the NVIDIA display drivers that the uninstaller does not remove, and boot back into Windows to install my driver of choice. You can't remove those "left over" drivers in normal Windows as several are still in use.
I'm not saying to go into the registry to stop anything, i was refering to deleting a driver completedly and installing new.
I'm not at home at the moment so I haven't had a chance to test this out. I think I misunderstand what was being said. I'll give this a go tomorrow and see if it gives me any trouble. Until then,
Followed instructions to a tee. This method worked for my sound card but Windows continues to re-install the video. When it didn't work in standard Windows I booted into Safe Mode, uninstalled the drivers using method above, ran DriverSweeper to rid my system of the remnants, but had to reboot before I could install the new drivers.
Upon booting back into Safe Mode or Standard Windows, the drivers were re-installed. Except this time my display starts flickering and changing colors whenever I drag my mouse to select items on the desktop. Any ideas on how to get rid of these video drivers for good?
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