Preventing Windows 10 from updating Prolific driver

[DDE12]

A recent update to Windows 10 has started automatically updating the Prolific driver. In the past, when this happened, I rolled the driver back, and everything was good, and Windows would leave it alone. Now it updates it immediately. I disabled "Choose whether windows downloads manufacturers' apps and custom icons available for your devices" in advanced system settings. Uninstalled the new driver and installed the old driver. Created a group policy Group Policy Location: (Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions -> Prevent installation of devices that match any of these Device IDs). Then I enabled the "Choose whether windows downloads manufacturers'..." again so it would not affect other things. Did the work on my remote as normal and unplugged the cable. When plugging the cable back in later, Windows 10 will not "activate" the installed driver because of the Group Policy.
How do I install the old driver that works and prevent Windows from updating to the new one?

[mdavej]

This worked for me:
- Plug in cable
- In device manager, r-click and uninstall current driver
- Leave cable plugged in and run this installer:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=25608
- Continue when prompted
- Reboot when prompted, leaving cable plugged in

You should now be able to unplug and plug back in cable without driver updating.

[DDE12]

Thank you mdavej! That is working.

[Ed]

Hello,

I've struggled with this a few times myself. Just today I found an error in one of my macros and got the "no remotes found" message when I tried to connect my remote to my Windows 10 computer. I followed mdavej's instructions and got the driver working again, so I'm back in business. I'd like to not have to do this every time Windows 10 updates itself.

Specifically, I would like to be able to stop Windows from trying to update this driver at all. I've tried the group policy approach and it didn't work for me. With the group policy enabled, during an update, Windows uninstalls the "old" (working) driver, then fails to install the new driver (as requested), but then ends up failing to reinstall the working driver too and instead installs some "generic" driver that doesn't work.

There is a thread on tenforums here that documents the procedure I've tried to follow and my experience with it (I'm Jim Rockford over on that forum).

I'm probably doing something wrong, but if anyone here could shed light on how to do it correctly, I'd be obliged.

Thanks very much for any help.

[HamburgerHelper1]

Maybe this will help. I have not had time to test this tweak


https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/detail ... loads.html

[Ed]

Maybe this will help. I have not had time to test this tweak


https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/detail ... loads.html

Thanks for the reference, but if I'm reading this correctly, this approach disables all driver updates. I'd like to be able to disable only the one pertaining to this thread -- the "Prolific" driver.

[The Robman]

It looks like you can use the Windows troubleshooter to hide specific updates. If you try it, please let us know if it works.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/top ... 8351398897

[Ed]

It looks like you can use the Windows troubleshooter to hide specific updates. If you try it, please let us know if it works.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/top ... 8351398897

That certainly looked promising, Rob, but when I clicked on the link to the troubleshooter, I got the dreaded 404 error: "404 - File or directory not found."

Then I discovered that the update tool was available on majorgeeks: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/detail ... whide.html

On reviewing the majorgeeks video, it appears that this tool allows you to temporarily "pause" entire Windows 10 updates, but not specific driver updates. I may have misread this, but if what I'm thinking is correct, that's not what I wanted.

The tenforums thread that I referenced (the same process can be found on several sites) is aimed precisely at what I want to do, but I just can't make it work.

So, I guess we're still looking for a solution.

[The Robman]

It looks like you can use the Windows troubleshooter to hide specific updates. If you try it, please let us know if it works.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/top ... 8351398897

That certainly looked promising, Rob, but when I clicked on the link to the troubleshooter, I got the dreaded 404 error: "404 - File or directory not found."

Here's an archived link.

[Ed]

It looks like you can use the Windows troubleshooter to hide specific updates. If you try it, please let us know if it works.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/top ... 8351398897

That certainly looked promising, Rob, but when I clicked on the link to the troubleshooter, I got the dreaded 404 error: "404 - File or directory not found."

Here's an archived link.

Thanks Rob. The wushowhide troubleshooter from the archived linked worked (so far) for me. I suspect the troubleshooter you could get from the majorgeeks site would also work. Their illustration did not show how to hide individual driver updates though. That confused me enough so that I didn't want to even try it.

A couple points: First, I "updated" to the "old" (working) driver yesterday, and by today, Windows had already replaced it with a new (non-working) one. The result of this is when I went to "hide" the Prolific driver, it was not available as an option to hide. The reason was that Windows did not think it was a problem because it had already updated it.

I went through mdavej's procedure again to re-install the working driver, then ran the wushowhide tool. When I clicked on "Hide", it gave me the option of choosing the Prolific driver. I chose it, then clicked next, and the tool reported back that Windows had "fixed" the problem with that driver -- by hiding it, I guess. All this time, I had the interface connected. I fired up RMIR and connected a remote. RMIR found the remote and I was able to successfully download the image from it.

Then, I closed RMIR and uplugged the interface cable. I started RMIR again and plugged in the interface cable again and repeated the download from remote. It worked again.

So, hiding this driver from Windows seems to work, at least for now. I'm hoping it continues to work through Windows Update cycles going forward. I say that because the tool is supposedly "temporary", I guess until "new" drivers can be found that work. In our case, we're never going to find a new working driver (I suspect).

Thanks again for the help.

[The Robman]

Dave, if you agree with all the steps that Ed followed, do you think we should download a copy of the wushowhide troubleshooter and store it here, and update the Wiki with the instructions?

[mdavej]

Steps look good to me. This driver plus wushowhide seems like the best, most complete solution at the moment.

[The Robman]

Steps look good to me. This driver plus wushowhide seems like the best, most complete solution at the moment.

I have added the file to the Drivers folder here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26315

Could you write up something for the Wiki?

[mdavej]

Done. Ed, please review and confirm this matches the steps you followed. Thanks
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wiki/index.p ... Windows_10

[Ed]

Done. Ed, please review and confirm this matches the steps you followed. Thanks
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wiki/index.p ... Windows_10

Yep. That matches what I did, Dave.

Thanks!