One of the top pieces of customer feedback in the graphics driver area is clear: “Windows Update downgrades my drivers.” Today, we are announcing a policy change to how display drivers are published through Windows Update — allowing 2-Part HWID + Computer Hardware ID (CHID) targeting for new devices. This change gives customers more control over their display driver of choice while preserving OEM control over the devices they ship.
↫ Garrettd at Microsoft’s Hardware Dev Center
Windows Update randomly downgrading your graphics drivers seems to be a common enough occurrence that its supposed fix deserves its own feature announcement and blog post. This is a real operating system that runs on most of the world’s PCs.
Yes, it’s actually common and frustrating. For a while, I ran Windows on my personal laptop before eventually removing it. It kept downgrading my AMD integrated graphics drivers without warning. I have the same CPU and integrated GPU on my company laptop, and the problem is still there. Windows used to have an external tool to block specific driver updates, but a few versions ago, it just stopped working.