Is there a way to check driver installation history?

[everway9]

Hi all.

Some unimportant questions for y'all

Today I realised that my Nvidia GTX1080 driver had been updated.

I was running an old Nvidia driver (378.78) because this is the only driver for me which allows me to use HDR in games. The newer drivers which give the OS control over HDR mess up the HDR. (If you have a HDR problem or would just like to know more about my issues with the windows HDR option then feel free to check out my thread on the Microsoft community forum here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-hdr-option-within-windows-10-settings-poor/2a3d49b5-fd94-4671-b14c-519ec4a7eb99 )

Anyway I found out that the newer driver version which has been installed is version 382.33. I did not install it and I can't see anything in the Windows Update history mentioning a driver update for my Nvidia GPU.

I'd like to find out when the 382.33 driver was installed and if possible which program installed it. Maybe I'm asking too much. But, do driver updates which Windows itself installs show up in the Windows Updates history? Is there a way to find out exactly when a driver was installed, not the driver version date but the date it was actually installed?

I did find that the option in 'Advanced system settings' to 'automatically download manufacturers app's and custom icons for my devices' was enabled. Is the name of this setting just a fancy way of saying 'update drivers automatically' or does it actually mean just apps and icons?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Colif]

its possible that nvidia drivers are updated through the windows store now, as I know MS use it for some small things. I cannot tell as I use geforce experience installed and use it. MS updates are generally not informative enough about what they do to be much help there

that is an interesting question and one which has been asked a few times and so far I haven't figured out an answer to it. The date alongside the driver in DXDiag appears to be the driver version date

I think you find the last option is for installing apps and icons for laptops or brand name computers.

 

[everway9]

Hi Colif.

Thanks very much for your post!

Yeah... I have GeForce experience and use it too. However I have disabled automatic install of driver updates.

As the information provided by MS for installed updates is not that detailed and the store history being the same I don't think I'm ever going to find out when that newer driver was installed. Even in the programs and features > view installed updates the information is very limited.

Thanks for providing the info about apps and icons. MS should make it clearer what this setting does. Having 'Devices' in the name of the setting is a bit vague. Well to me anyway.

Do you know of any other options within Windows which would specifically tell Windows not to automatically install driver updates?

Thanks again for your reply.

 

[Colif]

I don't know if this still works: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

You might want to ask on https://www.tenforums.com/ as they might know of another way/location as it should be in there somewhere

Odd you got an update, I just ignore the geforce experience thing and as far as I know, never get updates to Nvidia drivers but I noticed yesterday that windows modules installer was running in background and it seemed to be touching the nvidia processes, so perhaps it does update them as well. The module update chews up 30% of my CPU so I went looking for reasons it might have been running, checked WU & Store and nothing was showing there but it stopped using CPU just after I checked the store so coincidence?

 

[everway9]

Thanks for all the info Colif.

I only use GeForce Experience to optimise games the first time I play them. It seems to be good at configuring a good balance between performance and stability. It sets a good baseline. Then after a few plays on a game I start tweaking the graphics myself to get the absolute best graphics performance possible. I like tweaking. 😀

There's one thing with Windows... you never really know what it gets up to behind your back. 😀

 

[aquielisunari]

Also you can change your connection to a metered connection. Might be another way to pet that cat.

http://lifehacker.com/clean-up-old-nvidia-driver-folders-to-free-up-hard-driv-705780194

https://www.gameplayinside.com/optimize/cleaning-up-old-nvidia-driver-files-to-save-disk-space/


https://windirstat.net/ is a useful space visualizer I use to clean out my PC. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3425971/local-disk-space-increasing-constantly.html?siteFrom=EPR-8807#xtor=EPR-8807 which does go against the grain of the question but it sorta doesn't. Along with Windirstat I also use Ccleaner to keep my disks as fat free as possible. I have the option of analyzing my disks or just running Ccleaner. I have many other options but anyways, on the main screen. I click analyze. I then click on Applications tab. I scroll down to Utilities and I see Nvidia Install Files. I right click that and have the opportunity to analyze(aka show where they are) Nvidia Install Files.

 

[everway9]

Hi aquielisunari.

Nice idea. Thanks also for the links. Very useful.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hi aquielisunari.

Nice idea. Thanks also for the links. Very useful.

You're welcome. You can manually download and install older drivers through Nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/drivers/beta