8 ms·

Workaround: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation Prevent automatic download of applications associ

Workaround: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata Set to enabled OK On home editions sans gpedit.msc: sysdm.cpl Hardware tab Click Device Installation Settings Under 'Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices?', select 'No' Save Changes

Someone1234 3mo ago
Worth noting that gpedit.msc isn't included in Windows Home editions (although there are unsupported ways of adding it). This is also technically asking a lot for working around issues that shouldn't exist. Microsoft needs to intervene here, this cannot be a normal expectation for using their product.
- delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
  Edited with another method.
  - fuzzfactor 3mo ago
    Also found in the GUI: System > About > Advanced System Settings link > Hardware tab > Device installation settings Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices? set to No The default setting has been "Yes" for a very long time but most monitors over the years have simply used the default plug-and-play Windows monitor driver instead of installing their own. Triggering no additional downloads for the life of most computers. It just so happens that monitor manufacturers better adhered to the Microsoft guidelines for hardware compatibility earlier and more adequately than most devices. This might very well have been a reliability tactic since graphics drivers were still quite a moving-target shitshow, which in some ways is still ongoing. So people have mostly never gotten accustomed to monitor drivers having any consideration at all, while drivers for graphics themselves and other new hardware has often had some associated downloads that people have become familiar dealing with. Looks like LG finally took this long-standing opportunity to do some deeper enshittification than previously imagined. Simply taking advantage of a domino effect that has been lurking for decades. A couple other related gpedit options if you don't even want the drivers themselves to change after you have gotten them correctly installed: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings Turn off Windows Update device driver searching Set to enabled OK gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > Do not include drivers with Windows Update Set to enabled OK
  - Someone1234 3mo ago
    That's great, thank you. What's frustrating about that is that Microsoft has also gone out of their way to make it difficult to access the [legacy] System Properties (sysdm.cpl), while not fully reimplementing all the features into the Settings app. Including this one. They've only been working on this 10+ years...
    - delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
      *.cpl, *.msc, etc are Windows sysadmins' (and developers') bread and butter; Microsoft will never get rid of them. I am betting (maybe hoping...?) that Windows 12 will undo the changes in Windows 8, 10, and 11 as bad experiments and return to what Windows has done best, which is discoverable GUI configuration. Let's see.
      - Someone1234 3mo ago
        You're much more "glass half full" than me, but one can dream.
    - efreak 3mo ago
      What's more frustrating than that is the inability to have more than one control panel open at a time. Have your post of issues software open and want to change display resolution real quick? Sorry, you've lost your place in the list. Security settings are a separate app, but it's even worse because it requires elevation _every time_ before it can reload the list of issues. You thought this executable was already bypassing whatever protection, so you elevate to open the list of exceptions...then lose your place in the log and have to elevate yet again to find out the details...and open each list item in turn because the main list doesn't provide enough details to know know which item you were looking at and there's no detailed view. But you still can't cross-reference against your list of exceptions and forgot to take a screenshot, so you have to start over.
- AlienRobot 3mo ago
  Me on Windows 7: I don't want to use Linux, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it works. Me on Linux: I don't want to use Windows, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it doesn't show ads.
  - driverdan 3mo ago
    Can you even disable all the ads on Windows 11?
    - MatejKafka 3mo ago
      Yes, and it's still fairly easy.
  - VorpalWay 3mo ago
    Linux usability has come a long way in recent years. I switched full time to Linux in 2006, but I can absolutely understand those who wouldn't back then. These days? Unless there is a specific piece of software that can't run on Linux (or under Wine), and there is no suitable replacement for it? Yeah I don't know why you would voluntarily stay on Windows (note voluntarily, if IT policy says you must that doesn't count).
    - miki123211 3mo ago
      Accessibility. All accessibility stacks sucks in some respect, but Linux's sucks most of all, and Wayland people in particular don't seem to be willing to compromise on security (which is required for accessibility to work).
      - ThatMedicIsASpy 3mo ago
        Touch goes in there as well. I don't know how they add a new touch keyboard to KDE and have no access to arrow keys. Making it impossible to go up in the terminal. https://i.imgur.com/nOgLqHU.png https://i.imgur.com/nOgLqHU.png
- yonatan8070 3mo ago
  > Microsoft needs to intervene here Yeah, they've never pushed ads or installed software without the user's consent.
mrbluecoat 3mo ago
Very helpful, thank you. But it does remind me of that Yzma quote in The Emperor's New Groove: "Why do we even have that lever?"
- szundi 3mo ago
  [dead]
- delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
  > Why do we even have that lever For plug-and-play devices with multiple configuration knobs. It is nice to be able to click through a printer wizard to configure how one wants to print their documents. Likewise with an audio interface: loopback settings, codec, sampling rate, gain and volume of channels, etc. Or consider a USB CNC mill; configuring things like milling revolution rate, setting which bit is installed, what lubricant is used, etc. Or consider the Nvidia/AMD control panels for their GPUs; things like colour depth and space, resolution, scaling, anti-aliasing, vertical synch, power settings, etc. Some of these settings are device- and even manufacturer-specific; one might argue these are more than a driver or the platform can or should provide. That being said, this stuff should go into a user-mode driver... That LG have exploited this functionality to install adware is on them.
  - Saris 3mo ago
    Oh definitely, it's more a question of why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access or do anything outside of just configuring the hardware.
    - darig 3mo ago
      [dead]
    - tremon 3mo ago
      > why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access Firmware updates for devices are not a thing in your world?
throw0101a 3mo ago
> On home editions sans gpedit.msc: I've managed to generally avoid running Windows (at home and at work) for a long time now, but if there was a situation where I needed to get a PC (at home?), is there a recommended least-sucky way of living with? Are there editions or scripts or a setup workflow that would make it suck less?
- delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
  Use autounattend.xml[1] to pre-configure an image before installation. This is what corporate sysadmins have done in the past three decades to administer Windows NT fleets. Use PowerShell and various admin modules to configure an online installation. Then, to get a better version of Windows, use MAS[2]. [1]: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ [2]: https://massgrave.dev/ https://massgrave.dev/
- hamburglar 3mo ago
  To be frank, no. In order to make windows not suck, you must invest a lot of time into knowing what to disable on the various SKUs, and in my opinion, it stopped being worth it around the time of windows vista (2006-7ish). I worked for Microsoft back then and ever since I left in 2007 i have thankfully been able to have a no-windows policy. I did briefly try going back last year for Unity dev but it was a mistake that made me want to quit computers entirely.
- ImPostingOnHN 3mo ago
  Yes, Windows LTSC is an edition without as much crap. Haven't used it lately (over 2 decades with linux as daily driver), so can't personally vouch for it.
- warshinder 3mo ago
  Don’t turn it on unless you need to print something.
- MatejKafka 3mo ago
  Use Pro, Home is needlessly limiting for a power user.
Grombobulous 3mo ago
This is getting technical enough that you might as well install Linux if you figure out how to do this. In other words, we all know that regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place.
- fuzzfactor 3mo ago
  >regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place. Keep in mind the well-known quote from so many pages of Microsoft documentation over the decades, where the main useful function of a feature is the only one completely crippled in what's obviously got to be a complete engineering snafu: "This is by design."
- OsrsNeedsf2P 3mo ago
  I would much rather follow these steps than spend days tinkering with a Linux distro
  - hedora 3mo ago
    Then just install linux, and don’t tinker with it. The last desktop I bought took under an hour from linux install usb stick boot to steam installing my library of windows games.
    - LtWorf 3mo ago
      Realistically the user has never used gnu/linux nor ever intends to do so.
  - Grombobulous 3mo ago
    That’s what I mean though, at this point to get a clean windows experience it’s now a tinkering exercise in turning off hassles and spyware.
rkourdis 3mo ago
I had a mouse that would keep on installing its driver when plugged in, even with this setting off. I remember Windows keeping a cache of autodownloaded drivers ("Driver Store") and reinstalling them when the device is plugged in, so the mouse bloatware kept on coming back. Is this still the case?
- MaxL93 3mo ago
  You have to add keys under: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceInstall\Restrictions The keys I have right now are all REG_SZ (strings), and in order of "1" through "5", are: --- 1. SWC\VEN_DELL&DEV_AWCC 2. SWC\VID_DELL&PID_AWCC 3. SWC\Alienware_Command_Center 4. SWC\AWCC 5. SWC\VID001&PID0001&AWCCWINUI3APP --- Nothing short of this prevented "Alienware Command Center" (AWCC.exe) from pushing itself onto my machine because of my Alienware OLED monitor. I should note it's possible to shoot yourself in the foot there; I had entries 6, 7, and 8 blocking SWC\Generic, SWD\GenericRaw, and SWD\Generic — and that prevented Audio Endpoints from being mounted...
  - delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
    You only need (5) (see the AWCCWINUI3APP thing there?). There is also a group policy equivalent to this: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Device Installation\Device Installation Restrictions Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs Set to Enabled Enable Also apply to matching devices that are already installed Add the following two IDs: MONITOR\DELA246 SWC\VID001&PID0001&AWCCWINUI3APP IMO this is especially heinous as Dell have registered the AWCC.exe software component as a hardware 'device' within the device tree that needs its own 'driver'. Methinks Microsoft need to tighten the noose on these annoying OEMs.
    - prmoustache 3mo ago
      Yuck. And people say linux is too complicated for normal people because of terminal commands* *which in reality no user is really forced to use, it just happens to be easier to share and copy/paste a set of commands than hundreds of clicks on a screen.
Hizonner 3mo ago
Superior workaround: 1. Reset machine 2. Tap the BIOS setup key (often DEL) during the time before it boots. 3. Insert intallation media for a decent OS 4. ...
denkmoon 3mo ago
The real workaround is to delete system32. I had this shit with my alienware monitor. Doesn’t happen on Linux.

Someone1234 3mo ago

Worth noting that gpedit.msc isn't included in Windows Home editions (although there are unsupported ways of adding it). This is also technically asking a lot for working around issues that shouldn't exist. Microsoft needs to intervene here, this cannot be a normal expectation for using their product.

delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
Edited with another method.
- fuzzfactor 3mo ago
  Also found in the GUI: System > About > Advanced System Settings link > Hardware tab > Device installation settings Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices? set to No The default setting has been "Yes" for a very long time but most monitors over the years have simply used the default plug-and-play Windows monitor driver instead of installing their own. Triggering no additional downloads for the life of most computers. It just so happens that monitor manufacturers better adhered to the Microsoft guidelines for hardware compatibility earlier and more adequately than most devices. This might very well have been a reliability tactic since graphics drivers were still quite a moving-target shitshow, which in some ways is still ongoing. So people have mostly never gotten accustomed to monitor drivers having any consideration at all, while drivers for graphics themselves and other new hardware has often had some associated downloads that people have become familiar dealing with. Looks like LG finally took this long-standing opportunity to do some deeper enshittification than previously imagined. Simply taking advantage of a domino effect that has been lurking for decades. A couple other related gpedit options if you don't even want the drivers themselves to change after you have gotten them correctly installed: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings Turn off Windows Update device driver searching Set to enabled OK gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > Do not include drivers with Windows Update Set to enabled OK
- Someone1234 3mo ago
  That's great, thank you. What's frustrating about that is that Microsoft has also gone out of their way to make it difficult to access the [legacy] System Properties (sysdm.cpl), while not fully reimplementing all the features into the Settings app. Including this one. They've only been working on this 10+ years...
  - delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
    *.cpl, *.msc, etc are Windows sysadmins' (and developers') bread and butter; Microsoft will never get rid of them. I am betting (maybe hoping...?) that Windows 12 will undo the changes in Windows 8, 10, and 11 as bad experiments and return to what Windows has done best, which is discoverable GUI configuration. Let's see.
    - Someone1234 3mo ago
      You're much more "glass half full" than me, but one can dream.
  - efreak 3mo ago
    What's more frustrating than that is the inability to have more than one control panel open at a time. Have your post of issues software open and want to change display resolution real quick? Sorry, you've lost your place in the list. Security settings are a separate app, but it's even worse because it requires elevation _every time_ before it can reload the list of issues. You thought this executable was already bypassing whatever protection, so you elevate to open the list of exceptions...then lose your place in the log and have to elevate yet again to find out the details...and open each list item in turn because the main list doesn't provide enough details to know know which item you were looking at and there's no detailed view. But you still can't cross-reference against your list of exceptions and forgot to take a screenshot, so you have to start over.
AlienRobot 3mo ago
Me on Windows 7: I don't want to use Linux, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it works. Me on Linux: I don't want to use Windows, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it doesn't show ads.
- driverdan 3mo ago
  Can you even disable all the ads on Windows 11?
  - MatejKafka 3mo ago
    Yes, and it's still fairly easy.
- VorpalWay 3mo ago
  Linux usability has come a long way in recent years. I switched full time to Linux in 2006, but I can absolutely understand those who wouldn't back then. These days? Unless there is a specific piece of software that can't run on Linux (or under Wine), and there is no suitable replacement for it? Yeah I don't know why you would voluntarily stay on Windows (note voluntarily, if IT policy says you must that doesn't count).
  - miki123211 3mo ago
    Accessibility. All accessibility stacks sucks in some respect, but Linux's sucks most of all, and Wayland people in particular don't seem to be willing to compromise on security (which is required for accessibility to work).
    - ThatMedicIsASpy 3mo ago
      Touch goes in there as well. I don't know how they add a new touch keyboard to KDE and have no access to arrow keys. Making it impossible to go up in the terminal. https://i.imgur.com/nOgLqHU.png https://i.imgur.com/nOgLqHU.png
yonatan8070 3mo ago
> Microsoft needs to intervene here Yeah, they've never pushed ads or installed software without the user's consent.

mrbluecoat 3mo ago

Very helpful, thank you. But it does remind me of that Yzma quote in The Emperor's New Groove: "Why do we even have that lever?"

szundi 3mo ago
[dead]
delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
> Why do we even have that lever For plug-and-play devices with multiple configuration knobs. It is nice to be able to click through a printer wizard to configure how one wants to print their documents. Likewise with an audio interface: loopback settings, codec, sampling rate, gain and volume of channels, etc. Or consider a USB CNC mill; configuring things like milling revolution rate, setting which bit is installed, what lubricant is used, etc. Or consider the Nvidia/AMD control panels for their GPUs; things like colour depth and space, resolution, scaling, anti-aliasing, vertical synch, power settings, etc. Some of these settings are device- and even manufacturer-specific; one might argue these are more than a driver or the platform can or should provide. That being said, this stuff should go into a user-mode driver... That LG have exploited this functionality to install adware is on them.
- Saris 3mo ago
  Oh definitely, it's more a question of why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access or do anything outside of just configuring the hardware.
  - darig 3mo ago
    [dead]
  - tremon 3mo ago
    > why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access Firmware updates for devices are not a thing in your world?

throw0101a 3mo ago

> On home editions sans gpedit.msc: I've managed to generally avoid running Windows (at home and at work) for a long time now, but if there was a situation where I needed to get a PC (at home?), is there a recommended least-sucky way of living with? Are there editions or scripts or a setup workflow that would make it suck less?

delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
Use autounattend.xml[1] to pre-configure an image before installation. This is what corporate sysadmins have done in the past three decades to administer Windows NT fleets. Use PowerShell and various admin modules to configure an online installation. Then, to get a better version of Windows, use MAS[2]. [1]: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ [2]: https://massgrave.dev/ https://massgrave.dev/
hamburglar 3mo ago
To be frank, no. In order to make windows not suck, you must invest a lot of time into knowing what to disable on the various SKUs, and in my opinion, it stopped being worth it around the time of windows vista (2006-7ish). I worked for Microsoft back then and ever since I left in 2007 i have thankfully been able to have a no-windows policy. I did briefly try going back last year for Unity dev but it was a mistake that made me want to quit computers entirely.
ImPostingOnHN 3mo ago
Yes, Windows LTSC is an edition without as much crap. Haven't used it lately (over 2 decades with linux as daily driver), so can't personally vouch for it.
warshinder 3mo ago
Don’t turn it on unless you need to print something.
MatejKafka 3mo ago
Use Pro, Home is needlessly limiting for a power user.

Grombobulous 3mo ago

This is getting technical enough that you might as well install Linux if you figure out how to do this. In other words, we all know that regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place.

fuzzfactor 3mo ago
>regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place. Keep in mind the well-known quote from so many pages of Microsoft documentation over the decades, where the main useful function of a feature is the only one completely crippled in what's obviously got to be a complete engineering snafu: "This is by design."
OsrsNeedsf2P 3mo ago
I would much rather follow these steps than spend days tinkering with a Linux distro
- hedora 3mo ago
  Then just install linux, and don’t tinker with it. The last desktop I bought took under an hour from linux install usb stick boot to steam installing my library of windows games.
  - LtWorf 3mo ago
    Realistically the user has never used gnu/linux nor ever intends to do so.
- Grombobulous 3mo ago
  That’s what I mean though, at this point to get a clean windows experience it’s now a tinkering exercise in turning off hassles and spyware.

rkourdis 3mo ago

I had a mouse that would keep on installing its driver when plugged in, even with this setting off. I remember Windows keeping a cache of autodownloaded drivers ("Driver Store") and reinstalling them when the device is plugged in, so the mouse bloatware kept on coming back. Is this still the case?

MaxL93 3mo ago
You have to add keys under: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceInstall\Restrictions The keys I have right now are all REG_SZ (strings), and in order of "1" through "5", are: --- 1. SWC\VEN_DELL&DEV_AWCC 2. SWC\VID_DELL&PID_AWCC 3. SWC\Alienware_Command_Center 4. SWC\AWCC 5. SWC\VID001&PID0001&AWCCWINUI3APP --- Nothing short of this prevented "Alienware Command Center" (AWCC.exe) from pushing itself onto my machine because of my Alienware OLED monitor. I should note it's possible to shoot yourself in the foot there; I had entries 6, 7, and 8 blocking SWC\Generic, SWD\GenericRaw, and SWD\Generic — and that prevented Audio Endpoints from being mounted...
- delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
  You only need (5) (see the AWCCWINUI3APP thing there?). There is also a group policy equivalent to this: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Device Installation\Device Installation Restrictions Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs Set to Enabled Enable Also apply to matching devices that are already installed Add the following two IDs: MONITOR\DELA246 SWC\VID001&PID0001&AWCCWINUI3APP IMO this is especially heinous as Dell have registered the AWCC.exe software component as a hardware 'device' within the device tree that needs its own 'driver'. Methinks Microsoft need to tighten the noose on these annoying OEMs.
  - prmoustache 3mo ago
    Yuck. And people say linux is too complicated for normal people because of terminal commands* *which in reality no user is really forced to use, it just happens to be easier to share and copy/paste a set of commands than hundreds of clicks on a screen.

Hizonner 3mo ago

Superior workaround: 1. Reset machine 2. Tap the BIOS setup key (often DEL) during the time before it boots. 3. Insert intallation media for a decent OS 4. ...

denkmoon 3mo ago

The real workaround is to delete system32. I had this shit with my alienware monitor. Doesn’t happen on Linux.