Can I prevent Windows 8.1 from automatically updating the driver for a specific device?

[windowsabuser]

Hello,
Here's my problem. My Dell laptop's Intel wifi adapter driver is flaky. It will sometimes lose connection to my access point for a minute and then come back, for no reason. I found that if I roll back the driver to the previous version, this problem goes away. Whatever risks there may be with using an obsolete driver, I'm happy to accept them because at least I have a stable connection.

This leads to a new problem, which is that the OS, on its own, frequently notices that I am using an old driver and installs the new one without asking permission or saying it did that. I am okay with that behavior in general and I want it to keep happening for most hardware. I just want to have an exception with one driver for one device because I know it is buggy. Is that possible?

Thank you for any advice.

 

[martinch]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2500967

Also applies to Windows 8, apparently

 

[windowsabuser]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2500967

Also applies to Windows 8, apparently

Hi martinch,
Thank you for this, but that setting only applies globally to the whole PC, or to peripherals like printers. For specific little pieces of hardware like my wifi card, you can't do anything from the control panel, I don't think. I do not want to prevent driver updates for the whole PC.

 

[martinch]

Doh - from reading that, I thought you could do it on a per-device basis. I guess your only option would be to get it to prompt to install?

 

[Hilts]

Here is a video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EObC8LXlr9o (Its windows 10 but basically the same thing)