Windows 11 has a reputation for forcing certain things on users, such as putting the deleted icon for its Edge browser back on the desktop after an update. Of course, some updates it pushes out are welcome, such as for security. However, now it seems the company is taking this a bit further and is forcing driver updates for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards, even if you have this feature disabled via Group Policy Editor.
Reports of what seems like a bug in Windows Update have appeared online, showing Windows ignoring settings not to include driver updates in the normal Windows update process. A Twitter account named @ghost_motely posted screenshots showing a Windows 11 machine’s Group Policy Editor with driver updates disabled and a fresh Nvidia driver installed recently, seemingly ignoring this setting. Neonwin.net checked the update history on one of its machines and found a similar situation: A new Radeon driver had been installed by Windows Update despite the setting being disabled.
Another user on Twitter who experienced the scenario was greeted by a pop-up notification on the Windows desktop alerting them to it. The message stated, “Windows Update may have automatically replaced your AMD graphics driver,” warning them the installed Radeon software was now incompatible. Oddly, the link shown to learn more about this situation appears “under maintenance” currently. This particular user said they ended up formatting and going back to Windows 10, as apparently, something was prohibiting them from just reinstalling their graphics driver.
It’s unclear if this will get fixed, when, or what Microsoft attributes it to currently. Also, in most scenarios, you should be able to reinstall the latest graphics driver and continue with your life, though it is an annoyance. Also, though the incidents described above all occurred on Windows 11, Neowin.net also says it applies to Windows 10 machines. AMD has posted a remedy for the driver replacement scenario on its help page, and it seems like Nvidia owners will probably just need to reinstall the driver. We checked our Nvidia system, and no GPU drivers had been updated surreptitiously, so your mileage may vary.
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