Alternatives to uninstalling device from the Device Manager

Question

Backstory:

I have noticed that on my machine, whatever quality of the connection, the 9560AC WiFi is able to max out only at around 2-2.6 MB/s speeds (guessing its around 10mbps). However, by accident I have found out, that completely uninstalling "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" device from the device manager instantly allows the speeds reach 10+ MB/s, as was originally expected.

Empirically it seems the device is needed only for Ethernet-cable connection, so it is rarely used if at all.

Two main problems:

1. Disabling the device doesn't help, only uninstalling works.

2. Naturally, the device is back on and causing a bottleneck again after PC restart.

Question:

As I doubt there's a way or rationale to uninstall the device permanently (since it doesn't seem rational in case wireless card breaks, etc) -- are there any convenient alternatives?

One sufficient solution would seem to be scheduling an uninstall on every boot; but maybe there's some other option to disable the device, but with a stronger disable than just through the device manager (since it doesn't work).

Side note: Best solution, of course, would be finding the source of the problem (or drivers that would fix this), but with experience I keep finding that random Windows Updates or Driver Updates tend to break what has been fixed before.

Answer 1

First, you need to stop windows from automatically downloading drivers.

1. [win-key] + pause/break
2. Advanced system settings
3. Hardware tab
4. Device Installation Settings
5. No

Next, uninstall the device using the device manager

IF you get the option to also "Delete the driver software for this device" do it!
If this option works, the next step(s) should be unfruitful as you won't find any entries.

Now, just to be sure, make sure there are no more OEM drivers for this device on the system.

1. get a list of ALL OEM driver packages and dump it to a file
2. Open a command prompt as an Admin.
3. run the command -- pnputil -e >>%TEMP%\oemlist.txt
4. run the command -- notepad %TEMP%\oemlist.txt

Search the text file for "Network adapters". Look for one or more blocks that looks like this.. there can be more than one driver package for a single device. What you need is the oemXXX.inf name to remove the driver package.

Published name :            oem16.inf
Driver package provider :   Realtek
Class :                     Network adapters
Driver date and version :   01/19/2018 10.25.119.2018
Signer name :               Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

5. run the command -- pnputil.exe -d oemXXX.inf that you read from the text file.
6. reboot (just in case and to prove that it worked).
7. (optional) find the device in the device manager with the yellow triangle and disable it.

If you ever want the driver back, either enable the auto windows download or re-install the OEM driver package.

Good Luck!