You can block the installation of drivers for a particular hardware ID. It works the same way in Windows 10 as it did in Windows 8.1.
First, look up the device hardware ID:
- In Device Manager, right-click on the device in question, and select Properties.
- Go to the Details tab.
- Change Property to Hardware Ids.
- Copy-paste this into a text file.
Then, make sure you have a stable configuration:
- Download the replacement driver, but do not install it yet.
- Disconnect from the network so that Windows will not retrieve new drivers.
- Disable, then uninstall the driver that you want to replace.
- Install the replacement driver.
- Reboot and make sure it sticks.
Then, block all installation of drivers for that hardware ID:
- In the start menu, type gpedit.msc and press enter.
- Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions
- Double-click on "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs."
- Set this to Enabled.
- Click Show, under Options, "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these Device IDs."
- Copy-paste the hardware ID from the text file into the Value box.
- Click OK until you get back to the Group Policy Editor.
Warning: This will block manual and automatic installations of the driver. If you later decide to try out a new version of the driver, you will have to unblock the hardware ID first. You can't delete Values in the dialog box, so the easiest way is to change the setting to Not Configured.
This only prevents the driver itself from being installed. Windows Update may still download the driver package update, attempt to install it, and then fail. You will see failures in the Windows Update log. This is a separate issue.