Keep those specific drivers from updating
Does this sound familiar? You install a new piece of hardware and finally get it working. Then Windows updates and it no longer works! Likely what has happened is that the device driver also updated and is no longer compatible. The solution for older Prolific PL-2303 HXA/X clone chips used in serial to USB converters is to use a driver release older than vn3.4 Each time you turn your computer off, the latest driver is reloaded due to windows auto-update (or if you unplug and re-plug the device into a USB port). Note that this generally does not affect genuine Prolific devices.
To avoid that, a recent work-around exists and has been published by Microsoft. It's a tool named ‘wushowhide.diagcab’ (Show and Hide Update). It allow you to inhibit auto-update for a particular program or driver (Prolific in this case).
For more information and where to download this tool, take a look at this article: KB3073930 How to temporarily prevent a driver update from reinstalling in Windows 10.
I have tested it and it works fine. The only problem
with it is that it reloads the latest driver when you plug the device into a never before used USB port. So, if you change the place of connection, you should manually set the driver to vn3.3, but you have to do that only the first time you use this port. Next time, the driver remains at vn3.3 and never upgrades to vn3.6.
More information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-reinstalling-in-window
Download: http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/2/2/F22D5FDB-59CD-4275-8C95-1BE17BF70B21/wushowhide.diagcab