Windows 10 1903 hp drivers not working in 1909 clean installataion.

[aNdRi3]

I just made a clean installation of the new windows 10 1909 and the drivers seem to be version locked to 1903. There are no 1909 drivers and the old ones aren't working. What am I supposed to do then? Use drivers from windows update (ha!)? Download old windows and install it instead? How many reinstallations am I supposed to do just because the drivers are weirdly version locked? 

[WAWood]

@aNdRi3 

First off, there was no real reason to do a Clean Install of v1909 -- since MS has admitted that it is little more than a Cumulative Update -- nothing like the previous version Upgrades.

You would have done better simply running the Windows Update.  It would have taken a few minutes and you would have retained the drivers.

Since any install from MS media fails to include HP drivers, your best option would be to see if you can do a factory reset to get 1903 back and do a Windows Update from there to get 1909.

[aNdRi3]

It was time to do a clean install on my lap. The new windows version was simply a good coincidence aka not the reason. The problem is that the drivers are for some reason version locked, not that I had to reinstall the OS once a year. So, knowing that I cant download 1903 from Microsoft itself - I may have found a workaround. Theres an installdrv file that does not tell me that I got a wrong version of windows and runs cmd but I am not sure if it actually installs the drivers..

[WAWood]

@aNdRi3 

OK, so if you go to this site and look around, it's difficult, but you might be able to find a way to get an ISO for 1903:  https://thewincentral.com/tag/iso/page/2/

[aNdRi3 · Accepted solution]

I fixed the issue by just editing the "install" files of the hp drivers to search for 18363 instead of 18362. It's all good in the end but they should have made them 18362+ at the very least instead of isolating like that considering that we have to wait months for them to update them. What if I bought the laptop yesterday and all I had was 1909? 😄 Thank you WAWood for trying to help!

[Aquila86]

Can you please tell how to edit the file? (I need the exact procedure step by step)

[Aquila86]

So I found my way through...I will explain...

1. Download the driver from HP for 1903 windows version

2. Click to extract the files

3. Go to the directory of the extracted files and open it, than look for a file called "install"

4. Right click on the "install" file and chose "edit", a new window will appear

5. You have to look in the new window for every "18362" (wich is the code for 1903 windows ) and replace it with "18363"     (wich is the 1909 version), close and save changes.

6. Run the installer application and should be ok

BONUS. you have to repeat the modification of  "install" file for every driver you attempt to install

Hope I helped...cheers

[fsudolphin]

---

@Aquila86 wrote:

BONUS. you have to repeat the modification of  "install" file for every driver you attempt to install

Hope I helped...cheers

---

This did help... I used your suggestion and also saved a bunch of time by using search and replace on the entire downloaded driver folder (steps below).

As an IT professional, I've seen this reply from @WAWood in several places and although I know you're trying to help, I must be blunt: as an HP employee the response is not acceptable. You say it's a minor update. You say it will work in 1909 if you start with 1903 and upgrade to 1909. Which means, you should just be able to install it on 1909. No excuses. You should at least express empathy that this is something silly/stupid on HP's part (in more professional terms) that will be rectified.

I mean, I cloned my hard drive, like I always do with a new computer, so that I don't have to do a complete reinstall of all my software. But literally none of your drivers will install on the latest version of Win10 -- not even on a clean install so my cloning isn't the issue (also evidenced by fixing my problem with my cloned system by using Auila86's steps). Completely unacceptable, given the fact that, as you say, anyone who already installed the drivers and then updates to 1909 will be fine with the exact same drivers. Meaning the drivers work on 1909.

Having Windows run updates upon a clean install is very much SOP and should NEVER be a "gotcha" for something as basic as this. Absolutely maddening on HP's part, and your tone of blaming users for installing the latest version of Win10 is just completely inappropriate and frankly, absurd.

OK, rant over for now.

To expound on Aquila86's steps, download and install NotePad++, then follow these completely ridiculous, completely absurd (come on HP, get with the program), but effective steps:

1. Download all the driver packages you want to install using the HP Download Assistant

2. Start a command line

3. In the command line, type...

cd /d "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\HP Downloads"

...and hit enter

4. In the command line, type...

for %a in (*.exe) do "%a" -s -overwrite -report %temp%

...and hit enter

5. All your drivers should now be in C:\SWSetup. Browse to that folder in Windows Explorer

6. In that folder, search for 18362

7. Windows search should now show you all files in C:\SWSetup that contains the string "18362".

8. Right-click anywhere in the search results, then click "Select All"

9. Right-click anywhere in the search results, then click "Open in Notepad++"

10. Press Ctrl-H in Notepad++

11. Next to "Find what" type 10.0.18362

12. Next to "Replace with" type 10.0.18363

13. Click "Replace All in All Opened Documents"

14. In the File Menu, click "Save All", then "Close All"

15. Open Device Manager (Press Win-X, select "Device Manager")

16. Right-click one of your devices that doesn't have a driver installed, and select "Update Driver".

17. Click "Browse my computer for driver software"

18. Under "Search for drivers in this location, type C:\SWSetup

19. Make sure "Include subfolders" checkbox is selected.

20. Click "Next", and Windows should find the driver you want.

Or, Hewlett-Packard could just not be obtuse in the future and allow driver installation after something they admit is a "minor update". FFS.

TL;DR after wasting about 12 hours on my Sunday trying to install drivers because of HP's incompetence (there really is no other way to put it), following the steps above got me up and running in less than an hour. Thank you, Aquila86 for the proof of concept.

[aNdRi3]

What you need to do is to right click the "install" file and press "edit". From there you need to change the EQU 10.0.18362 to EQU 10.0.18363 and you are done. All you need to do afterwards is start the hpsetup.exe.  Its as simple as that, I hope I helped ya.

[fsudolphin]

That's correct, but on a clean install you need to find 20-30 individual files, all in different folders, not all files are named "install"... and once you find them, you need to replace the values in each one. The steps I outlined finds all of them and performs that replacement all at once.

I'll go ahead and change the instructions above to reflect the more specific string.