diff --git a/_register_database.php b/_register_database.php
index c7549a887..6cd40dcd0 100644
--- a/_register_database.php
+++ b/_register_database.php
@@ -4,24 +4,6 @@
 use SilverStripe\Dev\Install\DatabaseAdapterRegistry;
 use SilverStripe\Dev\Install\MySQLDatabaseConfigurationHelper;
 
-
-// Register MySQL PDO as a database adapter (listed as first option in Dev/Install/config-form.html)
-DatabaseAdapterRegistry::register(
-	array(
-		/** @skipUpgrade */
-		'class' => 'MySQLPDODatabase',
-		'module' => 'framework',
-		'title' => 'MySQL 5.0+ (using PDO)',
-		'helperPath' => __DIR__ . '/src/Dev/Install/MySQLDatabaseConfigurationHelper.php',
-		'helperClass' => MySQLDatabaseConfigurationHelper::class,
-		'supported' => (class_exists('PDO') && in_array('mysql', PDO::getAvailableDrivers())),
-		'missingExtensionText' =>
-			'Either the <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php">PDO Extension</a> or
-			the <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo-mysql.php">MySQL PDO Driver</a>
-			are unavailable. Please install or enable these and refresh this page.'
-	)
-);
-
 // Register MySQLi as a database adapter (listed as second option in Dev/Install/config-form.html)
 DatabaseAdapterRegistry::register(
     array(
@@ -37,3 +19,20 @@ DatabaseAdapterRegistry::register(
 			PHP extension is not available. Please install or enable it and refresh this page.'
     )
 );
+
+// Register MySQL PDO as a database adapter (listed as first option in Dev/Install/config-form.html)
+DatabaseAdapterRegistry::register(
+    array(
+        /** @skipUpgrade */
+        'class' => 'MySQLPDODatabase',
+        'module' => 'framework',
+        'title' => 'MySQL 5.0+ (using PDO) - <b>not recommended</b>',
+        'helperPath' => __DIR__ . '/src/Dev/Install/MySQLDatabaseConfigurationHelper.php',
+        'helperClass' => MySQLDatabaseConfigurationHelper::class,
+        'supported' => (class_exists('PDO') && in_array('mysql', PDO::getAvailableDrivers())),
+        'missingExtensionText' =>
+            'Either the <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php">PDO Extension</a> or
+            the <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo-mysql.php">MySQL PDO Driver</a>
+            are unavailable. Please install or enable these and refresh this page.'
+    )
+);
diff --git a/src/Dev/Install/InstallConfig.php b/src/Dev/Install/InstallConfig.php
index 39c3f67fa..23a2a40ed 100644
--- a/src/Dev/Install/InstallConfig.php
+++ b/src/Dev/Install/InstallConfig.php
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ class InstallConfig
      * @var array
      */
     protected $preferredDatabases = [
-        'MySQLPDODatabase',
         'MySQLDatabase',
+        'MySQLPDODatabase',
     ];
 
     public function __construct($basePath = null)
diff --git a/src/ORM/Connect/PDOConnector.php b/src/ORM/Connect/PDOConnector.php
index c26cc02bb..0436da200 100644
--- a/src/ORM/Connect/PDOConnector.php
+++ b/src/ORM/Connect/PDOConnector.php
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 namespace SilverStripe\ORM\Connect;
 
 use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Config;
+use SilverStripe\Dev\Deprecation;
 use PDO;
 use PDOStatement;
 use InvalidArgumentException;
@@ -135,6 +136,9 @@ class PDOConnector extends DBConnector implements TransactionManager
 
     public function connect($parameters, $selectDB = false)
     {
+        Deprecation::notice('4.5', 'Use native database drivers in favour of PDO. '
+            . 'https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-framework/issues/8598');
+
         $this->flushStatements();
 
         // Note that we don't select the database here until explicitly