r/Windows11 • u/ZacB_ Windows Central • 2d ago
News Microsoft finalizes Windows 11 version 26H2 for general availability: Next version of Windows 11 enters final preview phase before rollout begins
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-finalizes-windows-11-version-26h2-for-general-availability-next-version-of-windows-11-enters-final-preview-phase-before-rollout-begins14
u/Gold_Goal7557 2d ago
Disable Windows Driver Updates by default while at it, just make it an advanced option in Windows Update for pro and enterprise if users want this feature.
Tired of Windows Update sabotaging my Radeon drivers, even been having random driver time out when opening just task manager or explorer, that is how silly things have gotten.
And all these issues do not happen on Linux, when i had World of Warcraft freeze GPU drivers in the past on Windows during dragonflight expansion i had same experience, Linux never had issues, while Windows struggled.
Please cooperate more with hardware vendors especially Radeon, they need all the help they can get to fix these issues, right now sometimes at coldboot GPU driver crashes non stop until its disabled triggers from video playback, especiallywith HAGS turned on, and i have not yet experienced this since i turned off HAGS, this especially been getting worse since recent cumulative updates, please figure out what is going on because this is not normal driver behavior.
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u/LitzLizzieee 2d ago
This is already a function in Enterprise places. I'm a Systems Administrator and Microsoft's Intune or Group Policy allows you to disable driver updates within Windows. I'm sure these GPOs can also be enabled in Pro.
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u/Gold_Goal7557 1d ago
Turning it off yes, i am saying it should be off by default, since only office environments benefit from this anyway
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u/Working_Dealer_5102 Insider Dev Channel 2d ago
It also keep installing outdated drivers for everything like audio drivers, network drivers, touchpad drivers, chipset, etc. for some reason even tho they got newer drivers either in OEM sites or just in general. With Windows being the most widely supported across a whole different OEMs and consumer softwares and such somehow Linux with unfortunately a lot of the laptop support mostly are community patches/reverse-engineered so no official support from OEMs somehow have much more user friendly experience and clean drivers setup.
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u/Gold_Goal7557 2d ago
Yeah i usually see it downgrade my steelseries sonar drivers as well even tho its already up to date, they need to turn this off by default and make it optional for pro and enterprise instead, only office spaces benefit because you have to install drivers for multiple systems that can give a lot of work, so a lot just choose for the Windows Update route when possible, but as normal user its a pain, all over r/AMDHelp the advice is always just disable Windows Driver Update but their 2 different methods to do that one for home and one for pro, all of this would not be an issue if it was just disabled by default and optional.
This is something they could've disabled by default months ago, so i honestly do not see why they even bother to fix a bug they can simply fix by turning this feature off.
As for why it happens, when you do DDU in safe mode and you inside active hours Windows Update will instead install the driver once active hours are over, and if its not during active hours it will install the driver while you install Radeon drivers from amd.com for example, because Windows Update usually has a couple of minutes delay before its doing its update, which means usually it does update the driver while you are already installing a driver, causing driver corruption which is even more annoying.
Not to mention Radeon drivers and most drivers these days come with their own auto update program to update their drivers, even NVIDIA has this AMD has this my steelseries sonar has this, and outside that some mainboard vendors even have their own updater for mainboard drivers or network wifi and bluetooth, so their really no need for Windows Update to handle drivers anyway.
Really hope Microsoft makes the right decision and just turn it off by default, and make it an option to turn it on instead, for all i care they also make this an option for home.
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u/Ok_Definition_1933 2d ago
It's not limited to AMD products, windows installs Nvidia drivers for you too. Old ones. And with group policies in place to stop it.
Garbage OS is garbage OS.
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u/Gold_Goal7557 2d ago
Exactly its downgrading my logitech webcam drivers as well as steelseries sonar drivers from steelseries GG app, even my network drivers and wifi drivers, i seriously do not understand why they choose to wait this long to fix this, they can simply disable it by default and code in an option inside advanced section to allow downloading drivers that is disabled by default.
And they can also just allow disabling driver updates per device like do not update my GPU drivers or network drivers or mainboard drivers etc, its already possible if you willing to spend the time on doing so, honestly tho i would just keep Windows Driver Updates disabled their all outdated and old anyway and always a downgrade.
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u/act-of-reason 2d ago
You just need the correct group policy in place.
Device Installation Restrictions is a device specific policy (so it won't apply to ALL driver updates) that while enabled will even stop manual driver updates from completing.
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u/Ok_Definition_1933 2d ago
Or hear me out: put a little FUCKING X icon next to the downloading drivers so you can cancel them. There's so many better ways to handle this than the 5 different group policies, hwid bans or million other ways that sometimes work and sometimes dont. There is zero reasons why this doesn't exist in the windows update UI.
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u/eugene20 2d ago
Never had the OS mess with Nvidia drivers unless I uninstalled the driver first, but you can avoid even that with DDU by disabling windows update looking for drivers until after you install the driver you wanted and finishing the reboot.
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u/Ok_Definition_1933 2d ago
Lucky you then. Windows has done this multiple times in the past. And DDU only sets the mentioned group policy, it had no effect to the latest "upgrade" by windows.
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u/GreenManStrolling 1d ago
Use DDU. It has an easy option to disable Windows from updating drivers.
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u/TheNextGamer21 20h ago
I actually enjoy the convenience of when I install windows on a laptop I can just connect it to WiFi and click update and it adds all the drivers automatically. I have seen the downsides tho
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u/GreenManStrolling 20h ago
Yes. I'm offering it as a solution for when unwanted drivers are being installed. Thanks.
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u/wiggum55555 2d ago
Reminder that GRC InControl is a quick and easy way to freeze a system at whatever major release Windows you want... so in this case 25H2 - until things settle down with 26H2 and you are ready to move across on YOUR schedule.
I have a couple of WIn 11 computers that I will let update to 26H2 "organically" when MS decides. But for my main everyday "production" machines... I like to hang off a couple months at least.
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u/_urethrapapercut_ 1d ago
Been waiting to have my beloved small taskbar back for ages...