Intuos5 Driver Nightmare on Windows 11: Automatic Updates Breaking My Setup!
I'm still struggling with this issue: my Intuos5 doesn't support the new drivers (v6.4.2-3), but it keeps updating to the latest version anyway, making it stop working. It's really annoying and frustrating to have to uninstall the new drivers and reconfigure my preferences 2, 3, or even 4 times a month using the old drivers. The worst part is that it updates without warning. I just start my computer, and suddenly the driver has updated without even asking.
I'm currently using Windows 11 Pro (23H2) Build 22631.4541.
PS: My Intuos works perfectly with driver v6.3.46-2
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Hi Yerson Retamal,
You can try the steps here to stop the Auto-update:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10Cheers
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I am experiencing the same problematic auto-updating on Windows 11, too. Some of our workstations still use the Intuos Pro M from 2015 and work just fine with driver versions 6.4.9.2 and older.
Windows internal updating is disabled, still the driver updates itself to the current version - which disables older devices.
Frankly, this is unacceptable and probably illegal in Europe. Please provide a way to disable the self-updating driver.
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Hi Maxim Abrossimow,
I understand. However, if the update is being done through Windows, then there is nothing Wacom can do to stop that. That needs to be done at OS level.
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I am extremely frustrated with your driver updates and the misleading statements provided by your support team.
As an administrator, I have tried everything: checking Task Scheduler, startup folders, registry entries, and disabling services. Despite this, the Wacom Update Utility in the Tablet folder continues to run automatically. Your team claims users can control or block these updates — this is false.
The Wacom Professional Service silently triggers
Wacom Update Utility.exewithout any visible startup entry. Disabling the service breaks the tablet, so there is no real way for users to prevent updates. This behavior forces updates on users against their will and contradicts what your support claims.This issue is entirely independent of Windows Update, which is not relevant here. The problem is internal to Wacom’s driver and update mechanism. Users cannot control updates while still needing a functioning tablet, which is misleading and unacceptable.
I demand a clear explanation of why this utility runs without user consent and a solution that allows administrators to truly prevent updates without disabling the tablet.
This practice undermines trust in Wacom as a company and in your support team. Immediate clarification and a fix are expected.
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In task manager is activated
C:\Program Files\Tablet\Wacom\Wacom_UpdateUtil.exe
We even changed the name of application Wacom_UpdateUtil.exe.old the day before, which means that the service took it over again and started the application, if it was renamed it wouldn't start automatically, but it still started and did the upgrade again!?!? WTF are you talking about for years, how is everything up to Windows update?!?!?!?Windows update stopped, all parts of Windows that run applications are controlled, this only works with Wacom utilities, STOP THIS!!!!!
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Hi Robert,
Your issue sounds very concerning. The behavior you've described doesn't sound like something our software is capable of. If you're interested, I'd love to collaborate and figure out what's going on.
We currently have a few methods of installing and/or updating our driver software on Windows:
- Users can manually download our driver pacakge from our website. This is downloaded as a self-extracting executable that requires the user to intentionally run and approve the various prompts that follow.
- For users that have no driver installed, plugging in a tablet can trigger Windows Update to provide our Wacom WUHA Service. (Windows Update Helper App) This service is only applicable to newer tablets released in the last couple of years. This service checks to see if a driver is already installed, and if not, produces a pop-up informing the user that a driver is available for their currently-connected tablet. That dialog requires user interaction and will only appear once; it won't be shown again if the user ignores or closes it. The user must click the download button in that dialog to start the download of the most recent driver version for their currently-connected tablet model. That download is the same self-extracting executable that the user would manually download from our website, and as such the user must approve all the prompts that are part of that driver installation process.
- If the user has a driver installed already, we have three different times that our software checks for updates; starting the driver, plugging in a tablet, and launching the Wacom Center application. This check references a file on our servers to both determine if there's a newer driver than what's currently installed, and checks to see if the newer version is compatible with the user's currently-connected tablet. That file contains references to each tablet model's min and max driver versions. If an update is newer than the connected-tablet's max version, then the update will not be offered. If no tablet is connected to the computer, then no driver update will be offered. If the user sees that an update is available, but then disconnects their tablets, the offer will no longer be display until they reconnect their tablet. In the vent that everything looks good, we offer the update using the Wacom_UpdateUtil.exe app, which will provide a pop-up notification on Windows that a newer driver version is available. We also display a notification in the Wacom Center application. Both update offers require the user to click a download button, which then downloads the most recent driver version for their currently-connected tablet. That downloaded driver installation package is the same one the user would manually download from our website, and as such the user will be greeted by the same installation process that requires them to approve several prompts before the installation can begin.
We don't currently have any method of installation via Windows Update or other, that would occur without the user's express consent or acceptance of our End User License Agreement for the new driver version. It is possible to install our driver silently, but this requires the user or their IT department to intentionally configure this on their end.
Is your issue similar to the original post in this thread, or is it just that updates are offered at all?
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Greg, thank you for the clarification. Yet, everything Robert describes also applies to me.
Still, after a few hours of use the any driver installed automatically and silently (!) gets updated to 6.4.11-1. In connection with the newest driver shutting down the tablet and recommending getting a new device does make it seem intentional and might lead to legal issues in the EU where we are situated.
I will track our networks on monday to see what and where a connection is made.
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Sounds good! That would be far from our intention.
We do not want to offer updates to customers that can't use them; that would be incredibly rude. If such a thing were to occur, it would be considered a significant bug on our end.
The same applies to our drivers somehow updating on their own without any user consent. Every update process should require the user to interact with the installation UI unless it was ran Silently by the user or their organization.
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I can hereby confirm that driver updates are being downloaded not via Windows Update but a third party application by directly accessing Wacom CDN:
Right before our drivers stopped working, the following urls were called through our network:
Internet Protocol Version 4 Dst: cdn.wacom.com.cdn.cloudflare.net (104.18.20.91)
Standard query 0x4059 A cdn.wacom.com0 -
Hi Maxim,
What was the name of the third-party application and where does this leave us? I'd like to help further if I can still be of assistance.
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Hey Greg,
thanks for following up. This still points to your direction, to be honest. From the network logs i can not track down, what application is calling WACOM's content distribution network, but it sure "calls home" and gets the relevant data there. This leaves me here:
1. Windows Update is not responsible for updating the driver silently, as previously claimed by you and João.
Microsoft, to my knowledge, uses their own CDN.
2. As there are no driver management tools installed on our machines here, this again points towards the multiple applications provided with your drivers and tools.
So, where does this leave us?
First, I advise other users to simply block any connection going out to your CDN. This seems to stop automatic updating here. In the last weeks we had a silent update sometime during the day - today, we are still running on outdated drivers just fine.
Second, I expect you to investigate this further and provide proper fixes. This starts with the current driver: It should not be listed as compatible with devices that get shut down by it. You said:This check references a file on our servers to both determine if there's a newer driver than what's currently installed, and checks to see if the newer version is compatible with the user's currently-connected tablet. That file contains references to each tablet model's min and max driver versions. If an update is newer than the connected-tablet's max version, then the update will not be offered.
Start there, check if the current driver (6.11.4-1) lists PTH-651 (in our case) and remove it. That driver is obviously not working but deactives perfectly healthy devices.
My guess, if this is not malicious from Wacom's side, is somewhere your process is broken and your update routine does not respect user settings and does not ask for permission.
Thank you for acknowledging, that this should not happen and I hope there is no corporate agenda behind this. Prove that, I guess, because the fingers still point at Wacom.
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Hi Maxim Abrossimow,
You've presented quite the challenge that I admit will difficult for us to topple without your help.
Let's get a couple things out of the way, starting with the unsupported tablet messaging that's provided by the newer driver version. For posterity, that message was added years ago to help with a common customer complaint that they've installed the latest driver and found their tablet both wasn't working and didn't appear in the Wacom Tablet Properties application. The message is intended to inform the user that they've installed a driver version that does not support one of their currently-connected products, and they either need an older driver version for their current tablet or a newer tablet for their current driver version.
As for our CDN, that's the same web location that a customer would manually download our driver from. Heading to our download site, selecting the driver you'd like to download, and then hovering over the download button will display a similar web address, https://cdn.wacom.com/u/productsupport/drivers/win/professional/WacomTablet_6.4.11-1.exe.
For troubleshooting, let's start with your suggestion to review the contents of the update.xml file. Our software downloads a copy of this file to your personal temp directory, and you're welcome to review the contents of it yourself. That file is located at C:\Users\<your user>\AppData\Local\Temp\WacTemp\update.xml.
In the file, each tablet is identified using a Sensor ID that is stored as a decimal value, that when converted to hex matches Wacom's Vendor ID and the Product ID of the attached device.
(Edit: This requires that you have a compatible driver installed.) To cross reference this, the vendor and product ID for the attached device can be found in the Windows Device Manager. Our tablets are located in the Human Interface Devices category. Opening the Wacom Tablet device there, selecting the Details tab, and choosing Hardware IDs from the Property drop down will show the selected device's Vendor ID is Wacom's (056A) and the Product ID for this device is 0315. This matches what is shared on our open source driver's GitHub page for your PTH-651, https://github.com/linuxwacom/input-wacom/wiki/Device-IDs.
The hex value of 056A0315 converted to decimal is 90833685. That sensor ID in our update.xml file states that this tablet has a driver minimum of 6.3.8-4 and a maximum of 6.4.10-3. If you head to our download site, wacom.com/drivers, and search for the PTH-651, you'll find that our own download site mirrors these offerings for drivers that support this tablet model.
In an effort to minimize your involvement, I tested our update offerings using my own PTH-651 on Windows 11. When I install the 6.4.9-2 driver and connect my PTH-651, Wacom Center offers me 6.4.10-3 as expected from the value we referenced in that update.xml file. Disconnecting the tablet also removes the update offering found in Wacom Center, which properly follows our process of not offering updates to customers that don't have a tablet attached to prevent offering updates they cannot use with their tablet model. When I reconnect my tablet and proceed with the update in Wacom Center or using the Wacom Update Utility, both provide me with 6.4.10-3 as the installed driver after I reboot at the end of the isntallation process.
I let my PTH-651 sit attached to my test machine overnight and after waking and restarting it this morning, both times showed that 6.4.10-3 is still installed.
I did notice an error with 6.4.9-2 in my testing. When I disconnected and reconnected the tablet, the same offer was not immediately presented to me in Wacom Center. I found that I needed to stop and start the Wacom Professional Service in Windows Services in order to see the update again. (signing out and back into my user also corrected this). I'll be investigating this issue separately with our more recent driver release, but I think we'll both agree that in this particular case, you'd prefer to see no updates.
With my own PTH-651 attached to my Windows test machine and 6.4.10-3 installed, my tablet is functioning as expected. Opening Wacom Center shows that my tablet is connected and correctly identified, then navigating to Wacom Center's Settings page shows the message "No update available" at the top. Manually launching the Wacom Update Utility found in the Wacom folder of the Windows Start Menu also displays a message that no updates are available.
With your tablet attached and 6.4.10-3 installed, what happens when you check those two areas where we'd expect an update to be offered if one were available? Do you receive different messaging?
How long has your computer been automatically updating your driver for you? Is this behavior new to the update from 6.4.10-3 to 6.4.11-1, or did this also happen when we offered an update from 6.4.9-2 to 6.4.10-3?
Do you notice when it's being updated, such as your pen ceasing to function while you're using it? Or does this only occur outside of your usual usage?
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