Q. How can I disable the information bar shown in Drives and Printers that prompts to use enhanced device icons and information?

A. Normally, the Devices and Printers Control Panel applet gives fairly boring icons of a generic monitor, keyboard, mouse, and so on. However, users are prompted if the Internet should be used to get nice icons, as shown.

Once this is enabled, your view looks like the following (if your information is available on the web).

To stop the applet from prompting to connect to the Internet and download information, set the Group Policy setting

Computer ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative TemplatesSystemDevice InstallationPrevent metadata retrieval

from internet to Enabled.