PC Drivers & Software

[ShadowMac]

Last week, Windows 11 installed a display driver that was incompatible with my AMD GPU and caused a crash. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled the correct one. Everything went back to working until Windows 11 did it again. I paused automatic updates, but the computer did it again this morning. The computer crashes/shuts down after the incorrect driver is installed. Upon restart, the GPU completely stops working and my CPU takes on the graphics work, causing that bad boy to really get humming as it tries to run my live wallpapers lol. Rolling back the driver causes the device manager to no longer recognize the AMD GPU, but a reinstallation of the correct Adrenalin driver gets things back to working. Problem is that I do not want to continue this game of whack-a-mole with Windows and my GPU driver. 

Any help for a permanent fix would be appreciated. I'm not a computer super-user, but can generally navigate through most operations. Thank you in advance. 

[jsk68]

I believe DDU has a setting the stops auto updates.

I had to hack my registry to block win 11 from being installed, MS is out of control.

[kingfish]

How to stop updates for drivers with Windows Update

Jump to solution

Lots of people don't like the idea of 'stopping/delaying' Windows updates. I won't get in to that. Here is a way to prevent Windows Update installing any drivers. This does not effect the security, quality,  patch, or any other type update...they are presented as normal.

In short...you don't have to worry about WU installing (changing) AMD graphics drivers.

This is done through group policy:

Type gpedit in the search bar...follow > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

On the right side scroll to Do not include drivers with Windows Update policy and double click it. Select the ENABLED option.

Click 'Apply' then OK.

Reboot your computer.

[kingfish]

Lots of people don't like the idea of 'stopping/delaying' Windows updates. I won't get in to that. Here is a way to prevent Windows Update installing any drivers. This does not effect the security, quality,  patch, or any other type update...they are presented as normal.

In short...you don't have to worry about WU installing (changing) AMD graphics drivers.

This is done through group policy:

Type gpedit in the search bar...follow > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

On the right side scroll to Do not include drivers with Windows Update policy and double click it. Select the ENABLED option.

Click 'Apply' then OK.

Reboot your computer.

[ShadowMac]

Thank you. I've seen some things on the gpedit fix. My problem is that it would seem the Windows Home version does not have that feature easily accessible. gpedit does not bring up a run command. Is there a workaround to get to these settings? 

I agree, I don't want to suspend updates. I'm not even sure that prevents it anyways. 

[kingfish]

Valid for Windows11 or Windows10

Add Group Policy Editor to Win10 Home: 

Add Group Policy Editor to Win10 Home:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/enable_group_policy_editor_in_windows_10_home_edition.html

Or > https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/policy_plus.html

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Valid for Windows11 or Windows10

Add Group Policy Editor to Win10 Home: 

Add Group Policy Editor to Win10 Home:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/enable_group_policy_editor_in_windows_10_home_edition.html

Or > https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/policy_plus.html

[jsk68]

FWIW, DDU doesn't stop windows updates, it stops windows from updating the driver only....

[goodplay]

There is a regedit add in option for Home users, https://www.elevenforum.com/ has a Tutorial.

It does not affect other general, security updates.

But what i have seen mentioned is if you click check for updates it can override it.

[ShadowMac]

Thank you. I ended up making the upgrade to Windows 11 Pro from the Home edition. More reasons than just for the accessible gpedit availability, this was just the thing to push me over. 

I ended up having to do a few reinstalls (repairs) of the AMD driver since this started happening. I'm running a paused update at the moment and am waiting to see how things go. Pausing windows updates did not seem to prevent the driver switch anyways. It didn't do it for a few days on me, then just did it over my lunch break today. I honestly could not say when or why Windows will decide to replace the working AMD driver with whatever garbage it decides to shove in instead. 

I'll be back if this issue pops up again. 

Thanks to all for the help and comments. Nice to enter a forum and feel supported. I've recently fell back in love with PC gaming and I don't want technical problems to ruin it. Plan to do my own build in a year or two once my current build starts to age. 

[Mikek]

Im new to pc gaming i have ryzen 5700 6600xt i iinstalled the adrenaline driver and now i cannot open browser or click on any of my shortcuts. When i right click screen where it would normally show adrenaline or pro hun it just says loading. Now sure how to fix because i cannot click anything in my taskbar or anywhere else. The only thing that seems to work is Windows+R search ..if anyone can let me know what to do id appreciate it. 

[forkwny]

This happens to me quite regularly, and it's especially annoying because I have to completely uninstall whatever drivers Windows 11 installs using DDU, which requires a reboot into SAFE mode. Then of course you're stuck redoing configuration, overclocking, custom fan settings, and everything else within the AMD Radeon desktop app in Windows afterward.

Search for wushowhide.diagcab on the interwebs and download it - you can use this utility to find the AMD driver update and remove ("hide") it from Windows update. You must do this immediately AFTER you uninstall the Windows-update-installed drivers. If you neglect to do this, chances are Windows will simply reinstall the drivers right over the ones you had just installed, putting you back at square one, with incorrect drivers. This fix is only temporary because the next time a new AMD driver update shows up in Windows Update, Windows will install away as it did before.

kingfish's suggestion works for the most part, but I've still experienced Windows Update installing AMD graphics drivers anyway, even with the gpedit modifications above. I'm not sure if major Windows updates remove or reset the gpedit changes back to default, or if something else is happening. I've found the only real way to control this is to turn off all automatically installed Windows Updates in gpedit, and opt to manually install all of them, which creates further problems caused by not having current updates (security holes, bugs, performance fixes, etc.). 

[iotacode]

Sorry to hear that, its been a Windows thing for some time.

Windows' own drivers or no drivers, been happening to my laptop too. MS wants to control everything...

[AMD_cire]

This issues happens a lot to AMD users...

Personally, it never happen to me.. Just weird, This is my first PC, just normal install Windows 11, then AMD driver. That's it.

Windows update keep update till now what need to be update but like just never update my AMD driver. I even do not change any windows update configuration.

[ShadowMac]

So I'm back, and it happened again, even after making the group policy change. Seems to happen every few days. It is so weird. Not sure what to do than reinstall the driver every few days at this point. 

I'm having some other display issues that i think are unrelated, but I'll just mention here: the display craps out when I enter full screen mode for some web viewing like imbedded slide shows or full screen share using Teams for work. If I do a window share I'm good, but if I do a full screen share there are issues. There definitely seems to be some functionality problems with some Windows programs. 

[jsk68]

Here's a little program I have it may be worth trying (30 days free I believe) it gives you more control over windows and your whole pc.

[kingfish]

Sometimes this happens when you manually go to Windows Update and select 'resume updates'. It seems to break the setting.

[ShadowMac]

Would it show the settings changed or just not follow the policy? 

I went and checked and the "do not allow driver updates" policy was still enabled. I did a full uninstall and clean install today. Maybe that will work, maybe it won't. The standard install costs me about five minutes every time it does it, so I guess it won't ruin me......but **bleep** is it annoying. 

[kingfish]

No it doesn't change these settings, but it will check for updates without applying that rule. Until you restart. There was a mention of this on the forum some time back, can't find it now.

[kingfish]

In group policy you can also select how Windows Updates are applied. I use #3. You will get a pop up message saying 'updates are available. When you go to Windows Update all the available updates are downloaded and each has a checkbox to select the ones you want to install. 

Again....stay away from checking for updates.

Group Policy >  Computer Configuration>Windows Components>Windows Update>Manage end user experience>Configure Automatic Updates 

[goodplay]

I use #2 in your 2nd image, down to user preference i suppose.

[ShadowMac]

AGH! It keeps doing it. Every three days like clockwork. Putting this here to remind myself when I'm back this coming Saturday to mention it did it again. 

Honestly, if this is just a problem I'm stuck accepting, I'm not sure I will be looking at using AMD in future builds.  

[jsk68]

So WINDOWS keeps replacing your driver but it Amd's fault?

I really don't understand peoples logic these days.....

[ShadowMac]

Let me explain this logic, so you can understand. Fault does not matter, the outcome does. I didn't say anything about blame or fault.  If windows keeps screwing up anything, I cannot justify using it; not because its that things fault, but because that thing won't work with windows. I don't have an option about using Windows, I do have an option about using the hardware that Windows screws with. 

I hope this helps you understand logical reasoning better. Here I was thinking this forum may be different than every other forum, but nope. Always someone to run in and make some mischaracterization in order to make an unconstructive snarky comment.

[jsk68]

I'm not trying to be a jerk but your comment really doesn't make any logical sense, this is a windows issue...

Windows 11 is in BETA, if you want less bugs you should stay with 10 for now.

(NEVER, EVER beta test for Microsoft if you want a stable PC! )

BTW This happens on Nvidia too.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/206790/my-driver-keeps-reinstall-w...

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/317341/windows-keeps-updating-my-d...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3eiptj/windows_10_keeps_removing_my_nvidia_drivers/1

[ShadowMac]

You mischaracterized my statement as saying it was AMDs fault. I didn't say that. I like my AMD hardware and would prefer to stay with it. If this happens with other GPUs then switching hardware wouldn't make sense, if it is exclusive to certain hardware or drivers then staying with it would seem illogical.  Seems it is not and it's a universal Windows issue. Thanks for letting me know that. My point was avoiding the issue if it was specific to certain hardware/drivers. I won't belabor explaining why what I said is not illogical.

As I understand it, this is an issue with Windows 10 as well. I thought Windows 11 was through beta testing and has an official release at this point. Not that official release means bug free. I also could be wrong about that. Anyways, here I am with Windows 11 and this issue. 

[jsk68]

Well here's a tip, whatever issue you're having be sure to check Nvidia support also, see if they are having similar issues, they are way more active and you may find a fix there before you get one here. (Windows is responsible for way more issues than they get credit for, and they effect everyone equally)

[goodplay]

Try asking on https/www.elevenforum.com/

There is something that we do not know about re your settings. I'm not on Win.11.

The regedit option is known to work (on W10/11), unless you click on check for updates.

Well known that gpedit does not always (rarely) works on Win 11 home version.

[AMD_cire]

In windows update settings, there is an option like "receive update from other than microsoft product". Disable it to prevent microsoft dowload AMD driver. Additional option you can add is do not auto install, just download. So later you can choose what you want to applied as windows update.

[ShadowMac]

So I'm sure everyone is tired of me coming back to this topic, but I discovered an interesting twist to this issue. It may actually be a driver crash and not really Windows replacing the driver. What I've done previously after getting the error window that says Windows replaced the AMD driver with an incompatible driver when trying to open Adrenaline Edition software was to reinstall/repair the driver, which did fix everything temporarily. The last time it happened, instead of doing a reinstall I just restarted my computer. Everything restarted fine, no driver reinstall/repair required. 

Anyways, just thought I'd share. I don't know if this provides any insight, but it does not seem to be a windows update issue after all. Anyone have any thoughts on this? 

[Wanbli]

I hate to be That Guy, but I have applied every fix in this thread and several others, of which NONE WORK! Here's a screenshot of my PC after it removed the MS Basic Driver and reinstalled the AMD Driver and I rebooted. The ONLY resolution is 1024x768 and a single monitor (I have 3 monitors)!

Does anyone know if this is an issue with windows 10 Pro?