19 comments

• 

  VinDSL, Lenon.com

  4 years ago

  This article rocks!!! Thanks!
  
  I've been looking for a good way to 'clean house' on W2K. My install was a couple of years old and getting flakey. My 'system resources' was jammed with tons of useless 'hiden' devices.
  
  This article gets 10/5 stars... :D
  reply
• 

  AlexTheBeast

  4 years ago

  <ul id="quote"><h6>VinDSL, Lenon.com wrote:</h6>This article rocks!!! Thanks!
  
  I've been looking for a good way to 'clean house' on W2K. My install was a couple of years old and getting flakey. My 'system resources' was jammed with tons of useless 'hiden' devices.
  
  This article gets 10/5 stars... :D</ul>
  
  I agree... this is a sweet little recipe.
  
  btw, sweet php-nuke site you have there!
  
  AlexTheBeast
  reply
• 

  AHappyGuest

  4 years ago

  Thanks for this a simple solution that stopped the past 4 hours of going round in circles
  reply
• 

  www.blueonion.net

  4 years ago

  This is just exactly what the doctor ordered!!
  
  Thanks!
  
  8)
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  4 years ago

  good advice, my question is the hidden network drivers on my pc that give me conflicts wont uninstall. Says unable to uninstall might be needed for boot, and advice?
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  3 years ago

  Great advice but why would you have people go through the trouble of getting to the Deviec Manager through the DOS prompt when they can get to it through the Control Panel?
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  3 years ago

  <ul id="quote"><h6>AHappyGuest wrote:</h6>Thanks for this a simple solution that stopped the past 4 hours of going round in circles</ul>
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  3 years ago

  How to uninstall Unused Drivers and Devices
  
  
  Follow the steps below to display the hidden device information:
  
  1. Right-click "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select Properties
  2. In the System Properties windows click on the Advanced tab
  3. Click on Environment Variables button in the right middle of the window
  4. In the Environment Variables window, bottom pane (called System Variables), click on New
  5. For Variable Name, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
  6. For Variable Value, enter 1
  7. Click OK to close New System Variables, OK to close the Environment Variables window and OK again to close System Properties
  
  Form now on, when you open Device Manager, you click on View and then select Show hidden devices from the menu, you can identify the hidden devices by their grayed-out icons.
  
  Remember to delete the Variable devmgr_show_nonpresent_device when finish.
  
  1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties
  2. Click on the Advanced tab
  3. Click on Environment Variables
  4. In the Below window pane (System Variables), select the variable name devmgr_show_nonpresent_device and click on Delete
  5. Click OK to close the Environment Variables window and OK again to close System Properties.
  reply
• 

  ItaloVantore

  3 years ago

  A) from Start/Run Menu
  1) Open the Start menu and choose Run...
  2) Type in:
  
  cmd /c set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1&devmgmt.msc
  
  3) press Enter.
  4) In the Device Manager Console, from the View menu,
  select Show Hidden Devices.
  (the command remain stored in the history and you can recall it when you need)
  
  B) From batch file
  
  1) Create a new text file
  2) Type in:
  
  cmd /c set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1&devmgmt.msc
  
  3) press Enter.
  4) Save as MYDEVMGR.BAT
  5) every time you need
  5a) double click on batck file
  5b) In the Device Manager Console, from the View menu,
  select Show Hidden Devices.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  1 year ago

  <ul id="quote"><h6>larnc wrote:</h6>Great advice but why would you have people go through the trouble of getting to the Deviec Manager through the DOS prompt when they can get to it through the Control Panel?</ul> :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: the recipe didn't work for me, went through all the emotions but netgear is still installed in my computer!!! Any other suggestions out there??? thanks, joann
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  1 year ago

  :evil: :evil: any other recipes to uninstall netgear drivers, the whole program,I've just been going around in circles and nothing seems to work!
  THANKS!!!
  joann
  reply
• 

  Steve

  8 months ago

  These instructions are an unnecessarily complicated way to do something very simple. Just go to the device manager, click View, and select "show hidden devices". What you have not done is explain what to do when clicking "uninstall" results in a message "failed to uninstall the device. the device may be needed to boot up the computer."
  reply
• 

  Jan

  7 months ago

  Steve, your suggestion will show hidden devices, but not the non-present devices. And the reason you get the message "failed to uninstall the device. The device may be needed to boot up the computer" may be due to dependency on a non-present device. For me, setting the environment variable before starting the device manager enabled me to uninstall the non-present device first, and then I was also able to uninstall the hidden devices that before refused to uninstall (at least most of them ...)
  reply
• 

  Xiotion

  6 months ago

  THX FOR THIS!!!!! REALLY HELPFULL
  reply
• 

  MARS666

  2 months ago

  very goooooooooooooooooooooood
  this helped me to uninstal lots of old drivers on XP
  thx man
  reply
• 

  grace

  2 months ago

  thanks for this little recipe. but what i need is what should i do in order to show my hidden drive. e.g. "drive d". please help me. tanxc
  reply
• 

  donovan

  1 month ago

  owowowowowowoowoowwowowow thanks alot i wish i could give a kiss to who wrote this and poasted it thanks alot for reel your awesome
  reply
• 

  Martha

  2 weeks ago

  Have Windows XP - have lost sound - get msg that there is no audio
  device installed (multimedia audio controller) and that it is being used
  by another source. Anyone have any solutions?
  reply
• 

  TechMasterJoe

  2 weeks ago

  save the following in a notepad - quotes
  "echo
  set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
  devmgmt.msc
  pause >nul
  "
  save as hidden.bat
  .bat not .text
  then dbl click on the bat file to run cmd and open devmgmt.msc
  all on auto
  reply