4 ms·

To my knowledge, windows update always only offers the latest version of a driver for a bit of hardware... Is there even a UI for a user to select an older dri

To my knowledge, windows update always only offers the latest version of a driver for a bit of hardware... Is there even a UI for a user to select an older driver version from windows update?? I know you can do it if you manually get a .inf file, but thats a different flow. If not, what exactly is this announcement saying? "Stuff that a user isn't able to install right now won't be available for a user to install in the future"?

ninjaoxygen 1y ago
At the very least Windows Update can offer you two versions, a stable version of the driver and a newer but potentially less stable version through the "Optional Driver Updates" page in Windows Update.
- BrandoElFollito 1y ago
  That would require the vendor to provide such versions. I do not think I ever saw that
Maxious 1y ago
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com still lives in it's 2000s glory
- keyringlight 1y ago
  I'd be interested to know what effort would be needed to decouple the manual download database from what is connected to WU within currently supported versions of windows, presumably they've already got some way of filtering off which drivers they want to keep live. I think MS could handle the download cost of old drivers when a lot of them can be smaller than an average modern webpage. I guess it comes down to the question of how much MS cares about old hard/software past its support window, versus delegating that to third party sites like vogons.org and praying someone has the relevant file still available.
  - londons_explore 1y ago
    I think cost isn't the issue here. The issue is that it's super easy to emulate some ancient USB device, windows auto-installs the ancient driver, and you then exploit that driver to get kernel mode code execution. However, I don't think filtering old drivers is a good way to combat this. Instead they should be popping up a dialog saying "Do you really want to install this USB joystick last sold in 1998? Older devices can pose security risks. If so, please enter your admin password to confirm. If you did not just plug in a USB Joystick, please [report it]."
Dma54rhs 1y ago
I don't think its necessarely latest but what they deem to be most stable, which is not what the end user always wants.
- reginald78 1y ago
  Nor is it always the most stable. I've had update overwrite my working video card driver and replace it with one that blackscreens on reboot.
silon42 1y ago
What of windows 10 drivers?
mystified5016 1y ago
It does not. In my experience it always gives drivers that are at least 6-12 months old. Particularly GPU drivers. Drivers for other random things like disk controllers are likely to be a lot older. I can't recall ever checking a WU provided driver and not having to immediately go fetch an updated version from the vendor directly.

ninjaoxygen 1y ago

At the very least Windows Update can offer you two versions, a stable version of the driver and a newer but potentially less stable version through the "Optional Driver Updates" page in Windows Update.

BrandoElFollito 1y ago
That would require the vendor to provide such versions. I do not think I ever saw that

Maxious 1y ago

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com still lives in it's 2000s glory

keyringlight 1y ago
I'd be interested to know what effort would be needed to decouple the manual download database from what is connected to WU within currently supported versions of windows, presumably they've already got some way of filtering off which drivers they want to keep live. I think MS could handle the download cost of old drivers when a lot of them can be smaller than an average modern webpage. I guess it comes down to the question of how much MS cares about old hard/software past its support window, versus delegating that to third party sites like vogons.org and praying someone has the relevant file still available.
- londons_explore 1y ago
  I think cost isn't the issue here. The issue is that it's super easy to emulate some ancient USB device, windows auto-installs the ancient driver, and you then exploit that driver to get kernel mode code execution. However, I don't think filtering old drivers is a good way to combat this. Instead they should be popping up a dialog saying "Do you really want to install this USB joystick last sold in 1998? Older devices can pose security risks. If so, please enter your admin password to confirm. If you did not just plug in a USB Joystick, please [report it]."

Dma54rhs 1y ago

I don't think its necessarely latest but what they deem to be most stable, which is not what the end user always wants.

reginald78 1y ago
Nor is it always the most stable. I've had update overwrite my working video card driver and replace it with one that blackscreens on reboot.

silon42 1y ago

What of windows 10 drivers?

mystified5016 1y ago

It does not. In my experience it always gives drivers that are at least 6-12 months old. Particularly GPU drivers. Drivers for other random things like disk controllers are likely to be a lot older. I can't recall ever checking a WU provided driver and not having to immediately go fetch an updated version from the vendor directly.