I download the latest Iris Xe drivers using Intel DSA and as my OEM has an older version of the driver and they left maintaining updates for my product Windows Update is downloading whatever was the latest for them, 101.3358 in my case. How do I prevent this?
This has been happening for ages and while I blamed Windows initially, I highly suspect it’s an Intel issue as it doesn’t happen with NVIDIA (neither with AMD) dedicated GPUs.
I’ve gone down that rabbit hole a few times and I’m aware of two methods to avoid that. The first is to let Windows Update install the old OEM driver, then you install the new one on top without removing the previous driver (e.g. do not check the “perform clean install” button on Intel installer, nor use DDU).
The second method is using DDU to remove all precious drivers, then install the most recent one from Intel without internet (to prevent Windows Update to auto download the OEM driver before you can act), and, after that, restore your connection and quickly run
wushowhide.diagcab
(can’t link it right now but it’s easy to find, just Google it) to hide the OEM driver before Windows Update downloads/installs it. Beware that feature updates normally reset the list of hidden updates, so you’ll need to do that again whenever a big update (like 23H2) drops…Which version of Windows
Yeah, Windows is a stubborn SOB about doing this, even after disabling automatic driver updates.