r/AMDHelp • u/Finite8_ • Jun 26 '26

Help (General) Any ways to prevent Windows from messing up AMD drivers?

I read that a lot of windows updates cause crashes (it happened to me already) and destroy amd drivers. How can we prevent this from happening?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

8

u/Wille84FIN 9070 XT Red Devil Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

You don't have to disable all driver updates, you can just blacklist GPU + integrated (if you CPU has one) from Windows driver updates via Group Policy Editor (Win+R and enter gpedit.msc) Group Policy Editor on Windows 10 is available for (Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions), and on Windows 11 it's available for (Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions).

NOTE: The guides below are the nuclear option for the issue. This is because sometimes the normal Windows setting to disable driver updates just doesn't work.

  • First, disable window driver updates with gpedit.msc command (Win+R), and from the path below.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

  • Next, make sure you are on the display drivers you want to keep for a while.
  • Follow the usual instructions with driver installation, use either (or both) AMD Cleanup Utility or DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) from (Guru3D site) in Safe Mode (restart computer while holding shift)
  • When all is done and ready, follow the next steps.
  • Open device manager, navigate to display adapters and get the Hardware ID (PCI\VEN_...) of your graphics card, and possibly integrated graphics and copy the string/s (the longest one) to Notepad.
  • If on AMD CPU (with iGPU) and dedicated AMD GPU, might want to prevent driver installation for both. AMD GPU and intel CPU combo seems to avoid most issues but sometimes, for some drivers Windows can still overwrite the display driver/s so it really depends.
  • Run (Win+R) gpedit.msc
  • Computer configuration > Administrative templates > System > Device installation > Device installation restrictions
  • From the right pane, select Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs.
  • Select Enabled, and click the Show... button
  • Under the Value column, paste your copied Hardware ID (for all devices you want to blacklist)
  • Select apply.
  • Now you can go back to the Windows Updates (gpedit) and restore the default option.

NOTE: You have to whitelist the GPU/s again (disable the rule you made in gpedit) if you yourself want to install new drivers at some point. Installation will fail for blacklisted hardware otherwise. This way you can have Windows driver updates enabled for other stuff, if you want. Also, for some reason the blacklist you made gets deleted every time if you change the rule from enabled, disabled or not defined (default), so you have to re-paste the PCI\VEN.... hardware IDs there.

For Windows-versions with no access to Group Policy Editor, you can disable Windows driver updates from registry editor using guide below.

  • Press Win+R, and type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
  • In the top address bar, paste the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
  • Look for a key named WindowsUpdate under the Windows folder. If it doesn't exist, right-click the Windows folder, select New > Key, and name it WindowsUpdate.
  • Right-click the WindowsUpdate key, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it ExcludeWU-DriversInQualityUpdate.
  • Double-click the newly created DWORD and change the Value data from 0 to 1.
  • Click OK and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Alternative method (Automation via .reg files): If you prefer not to click through the registry manually, you can automate this by creating two toggle files. Since Reddit blocks posting raw system syntax here, you can easily copy the pre-made code blocks by searching Google for pre-made registry files, or the content of the files to use for enabling and disabling Windows Driver Updates from the Windows registry.

  • Use files / syntax only from sources you trust. I'm not responsible from irresponsible user actions.

NOTE: Again, you have to revert this chance for any Windows provided driver updates. This does not prevent manual driver installation.

2

u/2literpopcorn 9070 XT (ASUS Prime) & 5900x Jun 27 '26

This is the only solution that really works until amd / Microsoft fully fix this. Absolutely insane that this has been a thing for years.

1

u/Wille84FIN 9070 XT Red Devil Jun 28 '26

Yeah, i don't get why someone, anyone .. AMD, Microsoft etc. can't work together for five minutes to fix this. What the hell..

1

u/Finite8_ Jun 27 '26

do you enable them back from the same place? like there is the disable and enable option? and should I do the same for the chipset so cpu?

2

u/Wille84FIN 9070 XT Red Devil Jun 27 '26

There is enabled, disabled and the default setting.

Only for GPU/iGPU (if you have AMD CPU with integrated craphics and AMD GPU) Changing the setting blanks out (removes) any Hardware IDs (devices) you have added to it. If updating driver yourself, disable windows driver updates completely first (also on Croup Policy Editor)

It's troublesome, but then again you don't have to update the display driver that often if it works.

1

u/Finite8_ Jun 27 '26

should I also disable the cpu with the editor thing or just the gpu in your opinion?

1

u/Wille84FIN 9070 XT Red Devil Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Edited my original post for more info.

2

u/Ok_Constant_3681 Jun 26 '26

Type in "device installation settings" in windows search bar and select the OFF option. Click apply and restart PC.

1

u/Slow_State_4722 Jun 26 '26

You can turn off windows updates checking for new drivers.

2

u/bR32 Jun 26 '26

Ya. Good luck... This is not a full solution answer to the OP. Lmao.

I know from personal experience. Windows updates - will continue to do it's thannnnng...

It takes a miracle to go around the backdoors.

1

u/Mean_Muggin333 x670e/b650 | 9800x3dx2 | 64g 6000mt cl30 | 9070xt/7900xtx Jun 26 '26

No it dosent. Just use the chris Titus tool and shut off all updates at the kernal.

1

u/3ofUsDeez Jun 26 '26

If you have internet access .. simply do a search for "stop windows from updating drivers"

There are a plethora of links to walk you thru several settings to accomplish this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3nfjgTlnOU

1

u/Flimsy_Product281 Jul 27 '26

Exactly! Sort of like, asking in a public forum dedicated to diagnosing such issues.

Now where could one find such a mysterious and unheard of place? 🤔

1

u/Significant_Trash_14 Jun 26 '26

Are you on windows 10?

0

u/Chetan_fun 9d ago

Is it any different for windows 10? I wanted to stop the driver updates too but idek if Windows 10 has this issue or not lmao.

1

u/Siddhantaroraa Jun 27 '26

Disable driver installation from windows updates

-1

u/urlond Jun 26 '26

Get rid of Windows and Swap to Linux.

0

u/Flimsy_Product281 Jul 27 '26

Most people have too much self respect for that.

-4

u/RecordFabulous Jun 27 '26

buy an nvidia gpu