Disable forced bios update on windows

nissimezra · Monday at 10:46 AM

Scannerman said:
My personal experience has been that Windows will not do something so drastic as to flash my system BIOS without asking for my consent first. This isn't an opinion. This has been my experience. I recall an incident where Windows was colluding with Intel to inject microcode into the Intel G3258 Silver Anniversary edition CPU to hobble the chip for 'security reasons' but it is my understanding that it was introduced as an optional update. This move prevented users from taking such liberties with the CPU as to attain clock speeds of over 5GHz on a little dual core that cost less than $100 US. For quite some time it was all the rave among gamers until it wasn't. Again, this isn't mere opinion. I own this CPU. I still tinker with it.

I would venture that if this is a paramount concern just turn off Windows Update altogether. Stuff happens and mis-clicks can be easily red as "yes". You can always turn on your permissions for updates when you're ready to receive them again. Even then there is no 100% guarantee that Windows won't foist an update on you in spite of this. After all, it is their software that you have been licensed to use and Microsoft reserves the right to do what they like with it. MS is notorious for their caveats. Herein lies the crux of the matter: Where does one draw the line? I like to draw it at the hardware but in principle I cannot trust the idea that Windows will not violate my preferences. Wishing you the best.

And no way to stop it just disable the updates

XPS 8950, BIOS settings, UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates | DELL Technologies

FYI, we disabled UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates in the BIOS (BIOS setup -> security -> UEFI capsule firmware updates -> Disable) in order to prevent Windows Update (WU) from automatically u...

www.dell.com

Scannerman · Monday at 10:51 AM

nissimezra said:
I'm glad that you had good experience with windows. I'm doing about 50 to 100 new install a month you are doing 1 year .
What a 100$ CPU with what I asked?

I simply used that as an example of what I knew about Microsoft messing with chip sets. You are concerned about something similar are you not?
I'm a PC builder. Why would you assume that I only do 1 installation a year? I'm sorry you have to keep reinstalling your OS. I would be upset too if I had to do that 50 to 100 times a month. I wasn't suggesting that your superior i5-4570 CPU was a lowly $100 piece of junk.

Scannerman · Monday at 10:56 AM

nissimezra said:
And no way to stop it just disable the updates

XPS 8950, BIOS settings, UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates | DELL Technologies

FYI, we disabled UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates in the BIOS (BIOS setup -> security -> UEFI capsule firmware updates -> Disable) in order to prevent Windows Update (WU) from automatically u...

www.dell.com

Interesting. I'm pretty sure I suggested a similar approach.

Bree · Monday at 11:07 AM

My Dell laptops (at least, the ones new enough to still get BIOS updates) routinely get BIOS updates through Windows Update, but these are always optional updates. I can decide whether to install or not.

However, if you have turned on 'Get the latest updates as soon they're available' then optional updates will get installed automatically.

Ghost1959 · Monday at 11:32 AM

I recently had an unwanted/unintended BIOS update performed on a client laptop and it completely bricked the BitLocker encryption. After the BIOS update it was asking for the reovery key and the key provided at the time of encryption was invalid. I have completely turned off updates on the laptop and do them manually making sure no firmware updates are launched. If a firmware update is considered critical I'll unencrypt first and then reencrypt. More time consuming but safer.

pseymour · Monday at 11:34 AM

You don't need to decrypt the drive to do a BIOS update. Just suspend BitLocker, do the update, and resume.

Suspend BitLocker protection for non-Microsoft software updates - Windows Client

Describes how to suspend and resume BitLocker protection for non-Microsoft software updates using Control Panel and PowerShell.

learn.microsoft.com

gunrunnerjohn · Monday at 11:39 AM

pseymour said:
You don't need to decrypt the drive to do a BIOS update. Just suspend BitLocker, do the update, and resume.

However, if Windows sneaks it in without your permission, then you have no chance to suspend BitLocker.

pseymour · Monday at 11:40 AM

Yes, I know that, Captain Obvious. I just said you don't need to decrypt the drive, which is a much lengthier operation than suspending.

TraderGary · Monday at 2:16 PM

The nice thing about a Dell BIOS update is that the Dell engineers have built BitLocker awareness into their BIOS update procedure. The update first looks to see if BitLocker is active and, if so, automatically, and transparently, does the BitLocker suspension before updating.

Scannerman · Monday at 7:02 PM

Bree said:
My Dell laptops (at least, the ones new enough to still get BIOS updates) routinely get BIOS updates through Windows Update, but these are always optional updates. I can decide whether to install or not.

However, if you have turned on 'Get the latest updates as soon they're available' then optional updates will get installed automatically.

View attachment 131246

Yes. And with Dell Windows already has Dell's authorization to do this, so technically it is a Dell BIOS update much like Intel's arrangement with Microsoft for microcode. This is what I was attempting to explain to the OP but Bree put it so much more succinctly. I recall accepting an optional BIOS update similar to this for 24H2 on my DELL touch screen laptop before I gave it to my daughter.

nissimezra · Monday at 7:15 PM

Scannerman said:
I simply used that as an example of what I knew about Microsoft messing with chip sets. You are concerned about something similar are you not?
I'm a PC builder. Why would you assume that I only do 1 installation a year? I'm sorry you have to keep reinstalling your OS. I would be upset too if I had to do that 50 to 100 times a month. I wasn't suggesting that your superior i5-4570 CPU was a lowly $100 piece of junk.

100 for different customers not for me. I never had a problem with my OS because I never update it.

Scannerman · 2025-04-15T16:07:54-0400

nissimezra said:
100 for different customers not for me. I never had a problem with my OS because I never update it.

After re-reading your original post I think perhaps I misunderstood what you were communicating. I have no solution for this apart from blocking Windows Updates altogether because different proprietary builds hold different policies with Microsoft. I think you want something very specific that exclusively blocks Windows from updating the BIOS and it has been my experience that Windows won't update your BIOS without the correct permissions. Perhaps there is a CMD for this that I am not aware of.

Disable forced bios update on windows

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