losing my printer's driver with every windows update

Question

losing my printer's driver with every windows update

Clarke Lancina 0

Every time windows 11 updates, it removes my printer's driver, and I have to search google to find out how to get the windows generic driver turned off and get my real printer reinstalled. How do i prevent windows 11 from doing this with every update?

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Answer 1

Ivan B 123.3K Independent Advisor

Hi,

What is the printer model?

When you add it again, do you use the manufacturer's software or add it directly through Windows?

Thanks.

Clarke Lancina 0 Reputation points

2026-09-12T20:52:21.7+00:00

It's a Brother MFC L3770 CDW. Each time this has happened I re-download the manufacturer's printer driver and reinstall it. On this latest occasion, when I did try having windows find the driver, it said it couldn't, and I expect that's why it installs a generic driver...it can't discover the printer software on my computer and then just puts the generic in charge. Didn't have this problem in the "olden days" of Windows 10.
Ivan B 123.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-12T21:00:11.67+00:00

Hi,

Here is what you need to do: remove the printer device again, then open the Command Prompt (as administrator):

Run the following commands:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching" /v SearchOrderConfig /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Restart your PC. Open the Command Prompt (as administrator) and run these commands: sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth. Wait for the process to complete and restart the computer.

Reinstall the printer driver using the Brother autorun installer:

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadend.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=mfcl3770cdw_us_eu_as&os=10068&dlid=dlf106780_000&flang=4&type3=11

While this is not a Microsoft website, it is the official site for the [MFC-L3770CDW / Brother].

Please consider rating the question (accepting the answer or not) and visiting the Microsoft Q&A community if you have further questions.

Thanks.