How To Turn On / Off Driver Updates Windows 10

By default, Windows 10 will automatically install or download drivers in windows updates when available. There are some ways by which you can manage that whether to enable or disable these updates.

Following are some methods to manage this option efficiently.

Using Windows settings

Go to control panel or press (Win+X+P) and then click on “Hardware and Sound” and “Devices and printers” respectively.

Place cursor on computer icon appearing under “Devices” and select “Devices Installations Settings”.

Following questions will appear on your screen.

Now, choose option “No, let me choose what to do”. Again choose “Never install driver software from windows update”. At last click “Save changes”. This would disable the driver to install or download automatically.

Using Group Policy

Group policy can be very helpful to enable or disable this setting especially if you are doing for multiple systems in the network. Let’s begin with the procedure.

Go to search bar and write “gpedit.msc”.

In Group Policy editor, click “Administrative Template” given below “Computer Configuration”.

Then Go to System> Device Installation> Device Installation Restrictions.

Select “Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings” and set it to enable or disable to prevent or allow updating automatically respectively. Click OK to save your choice of settings.

Using Windows Registry

You can also enable or disable settings using Windows Registry.

Note: We would recommend you to back up your registry before making any changes to the registry.

Write regedit in the search bar and Regedit when appear.

Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Windows > Current Version > Driver Searching.

When you click “SearchOrderConfiguration”, a window pop-up will appear on your screen.

Now you have to change the value of “SearchOrderCofig” carefully.

Change the value to “0” to disable the option of automatic updating or installing.