Microsoft releases updates for a secondary school platform.
Microsoft releases updates for a secondary school platform.
I just watched the Intel Arc video, and what was mentioned made me want to share my experience. I work in IT at a Belgian secondary school, and last year I had to select and purchase devices for all students. Thanks to a European incentive, every teacher and student got their own "laptop" for schoolwork both in and out of class. Our school had used Apple for 30 years, but because of budget limits and curriculum restrictions, we switched to Windows devices. After some trials and contacting Microsoft, we decided on the Microsoft Surface Go 3 (i3, 8GB, 128GB) – a lightweight, portable option with a pen support. We got demo units and everything tested well. We installed Microsoft Wireless Display Adapters in classrooms so teachers could stream wirelessly to projectors using Miracast. It seemed perfect at first. But when we finally received our 1100 Surface devices, factory-set with Windows 11, we began getting ready to distribute them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t project the screens through the adapters, and even worse, they didn’t work with some Smart TVs in our meeting rooms. We contacted Microsoft without much success and tried to fix it ourselves. After testing, we discovered that updating the latest Intel Graphics Driver (Intel UHD Graphics 615) resolved the issue. We packaged the driver installer and deployed it automatically via InTune. We updated Microsoft’s records but got little response. A couple of weeks later, teachers reported streaming failures. We investigated and found that Windows Update had rolled back the driver to an older version. Microsoft responded with a workaround: we rolled back the drivers to the newest version and continued contacting them. They asked us to reinstall on Windows 10 because they couldn’t reproduce the problem. I refused, as I didn’t want to downgrade our devices. We spent weeks exchanging emails and messages, finally reaching a Teams call with Microsoft Support. They noticed we were using Windows 11, which they’d only tested on other systems. They asked us to enter a registry key that disabled HDCP for Miracast. Once that was done, everything worked. So far, we have a temporary fix by adding the registry key to all devices. We hope Microsoft will release a definitive solution or make the latest drivers available in Windows Update. TL;DR: The Intel Surface doesn’t connect with the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter. A working driver was removed by Microsoft Update. After weeks of back-and-forth, it appears the issue lies in HDCP on Windows 11.
I've also encountered problems where drivers were rolled back or removed... It would help if there was a way to turn off driver updates in Windows Update. Recently, several computers at my school experienced a faulty Ethernet driver from the update, making them unable to connect to the network. We had to rely on flash drives to reinstall the right drivers on all Optiplexes because remote fixes weren't possible. A week later, it happened again.
In the Computer Configuration section, navigate to Administrative Templates, then Windows Components, and finally Windows Update. Double-click the "Do not include drivers with Windows Update" policy. Change its setting to Enabled.
Brings to mind some issues from a couple of months ago when Windows Update insisted on installing Logitech MEDIA drivers from 2006 on client systems. Frequently received notifications that users' USB devices, such as trackpads, ceased functioning.