How to block Windows Update from installing an old Intel Iris driver

I've seen this repeatedly on W11 Home (and some Pro) devices. I install the current Iris driver (32.0.101.6913) and then do a Windows update and it installs 31.0.101.4032. If I run stress tests on the computer (I've used both Passmark BurninTest and FurMark) the computer will crash with the old drive, but runs fine with the new one. I've tried using the outdated Windows Update blocker, I've tried the registry settings. In Pro I've used group policy. I've even tried the Group Policy hack to add it to Home and the driver comes back on about 90% of the computers I've worked on in the last few months. So that's about 12 computers. There has to be a way to force Windows update to stop sending drivers. Windows 10 didn't seem to have this problem, but Windows 11 does.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

@tsherr





Windows Update will still download the drivers, but they will now be "optional".
So if you ever need one of them, you can just go to the Optional Updates, and find it there.

^^^^^THIS!

Here's a nearly identical thread, with a technical solution posted which allows you block driver updates for one specific device. This allows all other normal updates, including for other drivers to be offered.

Windows update keeps installing older Intel Arc graphics drivers

That's interesting. I've been using a group policy entry. That one not only blocks WU, but even manual attempts to update the driver. I'll have to try your method because it would be oh so handy to block WU while still allowing manual updates.

For sake of completeness, here is the procedure I use:

NOTE: Since this uses a group policy, you need Pro or better to use this.


IMPORTANT: This setting will prevent even a manual update of the driver. In order to allow manual installation of a driver, you will need to disable this policy first. Note that doing this will cause the hardware ID you specified to be lost (see details below) so you will need to add any blocked hardware IDs back to the policy when you enable it again. For this reason, make sure to save a copy of the hardware IDs before you disable the policy.

Open Group Policy editor by running gpedit.msc, and hit the Enter key. This will open Group Policy Editor on Windows Pro edition.

Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions.

Double-click on "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs".

Change the status to "Enabled".

If you wish, you can also select the "Also apply to matching devices that are already installed", which will prevent installation or update of already installed devices. That means that already installed devices that match the Hardware Id, will be retroactively uninstalled and not allowed to be installed for as long as the Policy is Enabled (active)!

Click on the "Show" button.

Add the device Hardware IDs for the device.

All device values (Hardware Ids) entered in this section, will not be updated neither by Windows Update nor manually by the user. Note that one hardware ID, per device, is enough, you don't need to add all the Hardware Ids listed in Device Manager.

Once done, Click ok.

NOTE: To obtain the hardware ID, open the device in Device Manager, select properties, go to the Details tab, select Hardware Ids. There may be more than one hardware ID. Generally the second ID is the one you want. It is a little less specific than the first ID omitting the revision number.

As an example, for one of my systems, the built-in CPU graphics shows these hardware IDs:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4C8A&SUBSYS_86941043&REV_04
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4C8A&SUBSYS_86941043
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4C8A&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4C8A&CC_0300

I use the second ID in that list to block the graphics driver from being overwritten by Windows Update. It is the most specific HWID in the list that does not include a specific revision.

NOTE: This setting takes effect immediately. No reboot is required.

I think this was a tip from @Bree (correct me if I'm wrong). To install the new driver. Then when Windows reverts back to the old one, right click on it and open properties and select "roll back driver" and it should roll back to the new one - and stay there hopefully! That did work for me on one occasion.

Hazel123 said:

I think this was a tip from @Bree (correct me if I'm wrong).

Click to expand...

You're not wrong. Windows Update used to replace the AMD graphics driver that AMD Adrenalin had installed on my System One. Without the specific driver for the installed version of Adrenalin its control panel wouldn't open. Rolling back in Device Manager fixed it, and WU has never tried to replace it since.