After formatting, the system always installs an old driver (WHQL) for my personal server. It is a Windows Server 2019 and I have a specific version that I want to install after formatting. I disable automatic updates via GPO, also enable the option "do not include drivers with windows update", yet the system still downloads and installs the driver I don't want. I tried to disable it via device manager, in "advanced system settings", by checking the "no" option in "device installation settings", but the system seems to ignore that too. Is there any real way to block downloading and installing new drivers?
After these changes I would reboot, but when I came back, the driver would start to be installed. I will try to change the settings through the registry, as in the link. Thanks.
Set a metered internet connection and quickly pause WU. Resume it and it should start downloading the non-ideal driver. Pause WU, use wushowhide (something like that?) to hide the non-ideal driver, resume WU, and the driver should be gone. That mostly assumes the driver is something large and your internet speed isn't fast-enough to download it quicker than you can complete initial set-up. I usually do that for graphics drivers.