Are you saying that OEMs include their own drivers in a Windows Update? I was under the assumption that a WU contained only MS changes and bug fixes.

If so why hasn't anyone mentioned this before?

In general, the drivers supplied with Windows, and by Windows Update, are written by the hardware manufacturers not by Microsoft. It would be well-nigh impossible for Microsoft to write and maintain these drivers using in-house resources. And there would be little point in them doing so when they can obtain this software from the people who know all the ins and outs of the hardware they manufacture.

These drivers tend to be a little behind the curve and not so cutting-edge as the ones from the manufacturer's web site.

But there are some generic drivers for very standardised hardware (e.g. an ATA disk controller, a generic VESA display driver, or a USB controller) that are written by Microsoft.

The release date of the latest drivers for my Soundblaster was 25 Jan 17. Since then there have been Windows updates that have not caused me any problems. Seems inconsistent to me.

Sounds like you've been lucky. A lot of people have had such problems. E.g. https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/87413-los...

Sounds like Creative are the problem rather than Microsoft.

There's an upside to the irritation, audio both through my speakers and headphones is now better than it was before .

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Are you saying that OEMs include their own drivers in a Windows Update? I was under the assumption that a WU contained only MS changes and bug fixes.

If so why hasn't anyone mentioned this before?

Yes of course OEM include their own drivers in Windows Update. Microsoft don't write all these drivers.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Microsoft don't write all these drivers.

They write some. Too many!

MS may have written generic drivers than enable the hardware to work but only just work.

If OEMs include their own drivers why is it best to go to the OEM site and download from there, are they not the same bits of code?

The drivers supplied by Windows Update tend to be older, and have less features, than the ones direct from the manufacturer.

But don't get the impression that the OEM drivers are not going to cause problems. There have been several instances of an OEM driver causing problems. But people do like to moan about Microsoft (and yet they continue to use their software).

The thing is that if an OEM driver doesn't work properly on the latest version of Windows it is likely to be quickly updated by them. But if Microsoft have deliberately replaced an OEM driver with no notification to the user they have done so, never mind why, they often have seriously reduced functionality.

A reduction one only discovers when needing to use the removed function, often causing a loss of considerable time diagnosing the problem oneself. Bearing in mind that Device Manager will report the drivers as up to date and the device working normally.

This can be disastrous if something is an urgent job.

If MS did list any such changes at the end of their update, as least any such problems could be fixed at leisure.