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I have an HP ProBook 6550b laptop and I recently installed Windows 8. After updating the Synaptics driver, I noticed that my OS eventually reverts to a pre-Windows 8 driver without asking me.

New driver

Old driver

Any idea as to why the Synaptics driver would automatically revert to an old pre-Windows 8 version? I don't remember what the default driver was.

Edit: I found the culprit. It's coming from the inside: Windows Update. How can I prevent Windows Update from installing the old driver every time I roll back to the 2012 version?

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Why not try uninstalling the old driver? Then it will use the generic windows driver. After that, install the new synaptic driver and you should be fine. – Brutick Nov 15 '12 at 20:18
Tried that before, but for some reason it keeps coming back. – Pieter Nov 15 '12 at 21:36
Is there a tool that lists all the drivers that are currently installed on my system, including drivers that aren't in use? I might be able to find the old Synaptics driver that way and remove it if it's still there. Another possibility is that Windows 8 is fetching this outdated driver from Windows Update, which can happen even if the driver's not installed. – Pieter Nov 16 '12 at 14:44

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I had the same problem. So I ended up reinstalling the newer Touchpad driver (again), then setting Windows Update to only download any new updates. I then did a manual 'check for updates now', and it listed that the Touchpad driver was about to install a new version (which is actually the old version). I then right-clicked on the update and set it to 'hide'. I haven't tested if this has worked thoroughly, but I still have the updates set to 'Only download', so I can at least check before it installs anything.

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Found the same workaround in the meantime, but forgot to report on it. Thanks for adding this for future reference! – Pieter Nov 24 '12 at 17:45
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  1. Roll back to the driver you want.

  2. Press Windows + w then type install optional updates and press Enter.

  3. Click on Check for updates.

  4. The driver that keeps replacing yours will certainly appear in the Important updates section.

  5. Untick it, right-click on it and select Hide update.

Now Windows should not bother you with it any more.

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