Disable Automatic Graphics Driver Updates in Windows 10/11 (Easy Guide)

Is your graphics driver causing problems after an automatic update? You can easily disable automatic graphics driver updates using the Group Policy Editor. Here’s how:

Like other drivers, Windows 10 and 11 automatically update the graphics driver to keep it up-to-date with stability improvements and security fixes. However, these updates can also cause problems such as Windows downloading the wrong, incompatible, outdated, or buggy graphics driver. This can cause several issues such as unstable system, sudden crashes, display artifacts, performance issues, and more.

This tutorial shows you how to disable automatic graphics driver updates in Windows 10 and 11 using the Group Policy Editor. Let’s get started.

Before You Begin

• Administrator rights are required to disable the graphic driver’s automatic update.
• Group Policy Editor is only available in Pro and Enterprise editions. If you are using the Home edition, this guide won’t work.
• Create a system restore point before making changes to the policies.
• Make sure you’ve manually installed the latest graphics driver before following the steps. You download the latest driver from the card manufacturer’s website.
• This tutorial is tested to work on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Good to know: How to roll back the Nvidia graphics driver.

Steps to Disable Automatic Graphics Driver Update in Windows 11 & 10

We’ll use your graphics card’s hardware IDs and the Group Policy Editor to prevent Windows from automatically installing driver updates for that specific hardware. Because hardware IDs are unique to each device, this method precisely targets your graphics card. While it might sound technical, the process is quite simple. Here’s how:

1. Press “Windows key + X” and select “Device Manager“.
2. Expand the “Display Adapters” item.
3. Right-click on your graphics driver and select “Properties“.
4. Go to the “Details” tab.
5. Select “Hardware Ids” from the “Property” dropdown.
6. Press “Windows key + R” to open the Run dialog.
7. Type “gpedit.msc” and click “OK“.
8. Go to the “Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions” folder.
9. Double-click the “Prevent installation of devices that match these device IDs” policy.
10. Select “Enabled“.
11. Click “Show” under “Options”.
12. Copy each hardware ID in the Device Manager window and paste it into the Group Policy window.
13. Click “OK“.
14. Click “OK” in the policy properties window.
15. Close the Device Manager & Group Policy windows.
16. Restart your computer and the automatic graphics driver update is disabled.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, you need the hardware IDs of your graphics card. You can get them using Device Manager. To open it, press “Windows key + X” and select “Device Manager“. Alternatively, search for “Device Manager” in the Start menu.

Expand the “Display Adapters” section in the Device Manager, right-click on your graphics card, and select the “Properties” option. In my case, the graphics card is Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti.

Go to the “Details” tab in the properties window and select “Hardware Ids” from the “Property” dropdown menu.

You will see a list of hardware IDs (around four IDs) under the “Value” section. Keep this window open and proceed to the next step. We’ll come back to these IDs in a bit.

Now, open the Run dialog by pressing the “Windows key + R” shortcut. Next, type “gpedit.msc” and click the “OK” button. This opens the Group Policy Editor.

You will see multiple folders on the left panel of the Group Policy Editor. Go to the following folder.

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions

On the right panel, find and double-click the “Prevent installation of devices that match these device IDs” policy.

Select the “Enabled” option in the policy properties window. Next, click the “Show” button under the “Options” section.

The above action opens the “Show Contents” window. Here, paste all the hardware IDs displayed in the Device Manager window. To do that, right-click on the hardware ID in the device properties window, select “Copy“, and then paste it into the “Show Contents” window. Once you paste all four hardware IDs, this is what it should look like. Click “OK” to continue.

Note: Double-click on each column in the “Show Contents” window to make the field editable.

Click the “Apply” and “OK” buttons in the policy properties window to save the changes.

Though we’ve changed the policy, it is not yet applied to your computer. To apply the changed policy, restart your computer.

After restarting, Windows will no longer download or install the graphics driver automatically. If you want to update the existing driver, disable the policy first and then proceed. To disable the policy, select the “Disabled” option in the policy properties window.

Wrapping Up: Stopping Automatic Graphics Driver Updates

Using the Group Policy Editor and your graphics card’s hardware IDs, you can easily prevent Windows from automatically updating its drivers. This same method can be used to block automatic updates for other specific hardware as well. Alternatively, you can configure Windows to never automatically update any hardware drivers.

If you later want to manually update your graphics driver, you’ll need to temporarily disable this policy; otherwise, the update might fail.

Good to know: How to hide updates in Windows 11 & 10 updates.