You can prevent Windows from downloading the latest drivers for whichever device, BUT you can't prevent it from auto-installing drivers that it already has for whichever device. Meaning, the below trick, does nothing and Windows still installs drivers for several devices after you uninstall them and restart: How can I prevent it from auto-installing drivers completely???
Not long ago I asked the same question... Now, if cuteee is right then please elaborate or anyone else a bit more. It's a real pain in the...
Just wondering how your installation would react on first boot without any default drivers for the display adapter, disk drives, human interface devices, etc. Maybe you could just slipstream the required drivers; however, I haven't done that since XP days and I hear that is no easy task in Win 8.1.
And before you respond to my previous post, I know exactly was you were trying to say (I think). Actually, you meant: "How can I prevent Windows 8.1 from installing any 3rd-party drivers from the updated (enhanced) catalog of 3rd-party drivers available in Windows 8.1?" Now, even if that is what you meant, I still don't understand the benefits of blocking those initial driver installations because you still have to install your preferred drivers anyway and that would just update the existing drivers (unless you wanted to use an older version for some unknown reason). Maybe you could elaborate a bit on why this would make a difference?
Windows doesn't install drivers in stored repository after you uninstall them, CLEAN THEM FROM REPOSITORY and restart... ...only drivers, what are integrated with Windows installation ISO, can't be cleaned from repository.