How-To Geek

This laptop is running Windows 7 Home

I uninstalled the Windows 7 Generic HD Audio Driver because I want to manually install a previous version.
After restarting Windows 7 automatically re-installs the windows generic driver..

I have tried the following:
Start / Computer / Properties / Advanced System Settings / System Properties
Hardware Tab / Device Installation Settings / Never install driver software from windows update.

But the "Never statement"...... it only implies drivers from live update..... windows still continues to update from locally stored drivers.

My Questions

1. How do prevent drivers auto installing generic drivers on restart?

2. When I delete a driver it is no longer visible in device manager folder tree.
How can I make all uninstalled devices visible as in previous versions with a yellow triangle?

I have done extensive searching on the internet and there does not appear to be any Geeks out there
that know how to do this so help towards a method would be much appreciated.

Thanks In Advance

Geeked, you can manually install the driver at anytime. It is always good to uninstall the original/previous driver, just don't reboot when you do this because the generic driver will load automatically.
install the new driver, if it is required then reboot.

Mike

Hello
Thanks for all the replies.

When I uninstalled the HD Audio Driver I could no longer see the device to install it again.
How do I see the device in the Device Manager Folder tree to get access to it's properties so I can
manually install the driver I want?

Hello Xhi
Thanks for the post.
I have been uninstalling the driver exactly the same as explained in my post.
Clicking on Uninstall then provides a warning popup to advise you are uninstalling the device.
In your picture on the left "High Definition Audio Device" disappears from the tree when the driver is uninstalled
The tree updates momentarily once the uninstall button has been clicked.

Hello Xhi
Scanning for hardware changes worked this time.
Maybe I didn't let it run long enough the other times I tried.
It took ages to find anything.

I found I can see hidden devices:
In Computer Management.... on the far right hand column corner of the screen:
Device Manager Drop Arrow / "More Actions" / View / Hidden Devices

Anyway it " Working"

:)