Windows 10: Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10

It could be from "DoNotSpy10". 3rd party tweaking utility programs have been known to set things like this by default.

If this had just recently happened, then you could do a system restore using a restore point dated before it happened to see what was removed afterwards that may have been the cause.

 

I do not have a restore point, unfortunately.
For testing I can restore an image of my hard disk that was made before I installed DoNotSpy, but that was when I was still running the Windows 10 Home OEM version. I guess I can not run gpedit.msc then. However, I guess I can still post the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-SOFTWARE-Policies and HKEY_CURRENT_USER-SOFTWARE-Policies registry entries. Will this be sufficient?

Furthermore, how can a program 'force' a policy if that can not be found in the registry? I am surprised.

Thanks for your support!!

 

I wouldn't go that far. You might uninstall the DoNotSpy to see if the settings are enabled afterwards.

There are the usual places for these settings in the registry, but it's still like searching for a needle in a haystack when you don't know what made the change.

 

I uninstalled DoNotSpy and rebooted, but still the message ""Some settings are managed by your system administrator" is there...
I am gonna put back the image and let you know if the message is still there, will be a few hours or so I guess. If it is, is there a way to check group policy settings on Windows 10 Home?

 

Only in the registry on Windows 10 Home.

 

I restored an image that restored the machine to 'factory settings': now I could change the settings again

But when I go back to my 'normal' machine again, the option is of course not available. At least the greyed out option has the preferred value: "no, do not install new drivers". A few days I ran the"Show or hide updates" troubleshooter package (wushowhide.diagcab) and indeed, I saw quite a few driver updates available that were not offered.
But I have no idea where to look to restore the driver update functionality. If you do not have further suggestions, I just leave it like this I think...

BTW, I just copied gpedit.msc from my W10 Pro machine to the W10 Home machine and it ran smoothly.

 

If that is the setting you wanted, then I wouldn't worry about doing anymore.

 

Ah, I can change the greyed out option from "Yes" to "No and vice versa by (un)ticking the option "Disable Retrieving Device Metadata" in DoNotSpy. The option is changed by changing this registry entry key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata!PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork" from "0" in "1".

But why is it still greyed out? The policies under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Device Installation all have the status "not configured"... But let's try something with the "Prevent device metadata retrieval from the Internet" policy...
I changed this policy from "Not configured" to "Disabled" and rebooted, then changed it back to "Not configured" and rebooted again.

To my surprise: option is not greyed out anymore!! Do not ask me why, this is Windows I guess ;-)
So people, in future you can also try to change this policy to get rid of this problem.

Thanks Brink for your help!

 

Great news. I'm glad you got it tracked down to DoNotSpy causing it.

 

Hi Shawn.
Would it be possible to spare a minute to gimme your opinion about this.

iPhone shown as Unspecified in Devices and Printers - Windows 10 Forums

I'm supposed to get the correct driver automatically, which I did, as everything seems to be working, except from the device presentation. So is the automatic driver correct?

Dimitri

 

Hello Dimitri, *Smile

Yeah, it appears to not have updated with the correct device icon yet for some reason.

 

It was installed last Friday. Since it wasn't working I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver a couple of times, with the same result.

 

Hello

I must apologise as I have come to this a little bit late, but noticed this thread and realised that I may well find my answer here ( Brink ) amongst others are clearly very clued up on what I need to know so here goes.

I have just installed Windows 10 Pro and under " Device installation settings " I have a very limited choice regarding the handling of downloaded apps and icons ... I know that this can be changed in group policy so if somebody can tell me what I need to change/configure within the Device installation folder ( inside Group policy edit ) that would be a tremendous help

I have posted 2 jpgs which show mine as it is and what I want to achieve.

Thank you

 

Hello Corrie, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Yeah, as you found there's only a yes/no setting in "Device Installation Settings" now.

Here's the registry location below to turn on/off "replace generic device icons with enhanced icons", but I haven't tested it yet in Windows 10.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata

PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork

0 = enable
1 = disable

 

Morning Brink

Thank you for the warm welcome

Please excuse my seemingly lack of understanding here but I need a little guidance from you - I located the key and then modified it, the key was set to disable i.e 0 so I changed it to 1

I then rebooted - therefore I need to ask is it the case that the 2nd picture ( more options ) should have been present once I rebooted or have I completely misunderstood you as the first option pic 1 is still the only option available when I select "Device installation settings"

Sorry about this - I am sure this will not take to long to come to a conclusion.