Windows 8 - disable automatic driver installation

[ludi]

So...I'm relaxing by the fireplace with my laptop, and what before my wondering eyes should appear, but a new entry on the start screen: "driver update." I click, and get a notification window to update a driver for an Epson printer I definitely don't own and have never used. Wuuuuuttt....??!

I then vaguely remember an Epson printer being on a home network I connected to for a couple days while traveling in the Northwest around New Year's.

Upon opening Control Panel => Devices & Printers, sure enough: the printer had not only installed automatically, it had made itself the default.

Near as I can tell, this unrequested "feature" is disabled via Control Panel => System => Advanced System Settings => "Hardware" tab => Device Installation Settings, although the "ask me every time" option is missing. Is there anything else I should be looking for to ensure it doesn't happen again?

[Ryu Connor]

That's all you need to do to cut it off.

It also asked you during the OS install if you wanted automatic driver install or not - more specifically at the OoBE phase.

Windows 8 (and 7) should support network location aware printing. Moving to a different network with a different common printer you use should see a change in the default printer.

[ludi]

That's all you need to do to cut it off.

Okay, thanks. Hopefully that's the end of the problem.

It also asked you during the OS install if you wanted automatic driver install or not - more specifically at the OoBE phase.

It may have, but if so I was unaware of the implications. Windows has offered some variation of "install drivers automatically" when detecting new PnP hardware since 1995. This is the first time I have seen any version of Windows grab and install a complete software package without even notifying the user that it was doing so, let alone requesting permission to modify the system. Suddenly, I pine deeply for a Vista-grade UAC experience.

Windows 8 (and 7) should support network location aware printing. Moving to a different network with a different common printer you use should see a change in the default printer.

Perhaps, but since the printer on my usual network is an old-as-dirt, non-bidirectional LaserJet 4L running as an IP printer via a TrendNet print server, Windows wouldn't know whether it was online or not. But the 4L was very definitely the default printer before the Epson was autoinstalled, and Windows should have been able to tell that the Epson was nowhere nearby at the time when I discovered this problem.