DISQUS

VinDSL, Lenon.com · 5 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

AlexTheBeast · 5 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

AHappyGuest · 4 years ago

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

www.blueonion.net · 4 years ago

This is just exactly what the doctor ordered!!

Thanks!

8)

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?

Anonymous · 4 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?

Anonymous · 4 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>

Anonymous · 4 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.

ItaloVantore · 4 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.

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

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

Steve · 1 year 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."

Jan · 1 year 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 ...)

Xiotion · 10 months ago

THX FOR THIS!!!!! REALLY HELPFULL

MARS666 · 7 months ago

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

grace · 6 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

donovan · 6 months ago

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

Martha · 4 months 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?

TechMasterJoe · 4 months 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

Barbara Gallicano · 4 months ago

I can't find out what PPSCAN is in hidden devices. It has a yellow bar next to it. Nothing else has this. I lost the sound but have sound when I use the printer that tells me that the printer is printing and when print ends. I don't know if I should remove it. I tried RegTool and they went into my computer but evidently didn't see it or left it. I can't get an answer from them and they refunded my money.
Thank You
Barbara

RangerGord666 · 4 months ago

Need a way to identify unused devices in Device Manger. I have several entries in the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” and “Human Interface Devices” that are grayed-out and not used. I think this happens when devices are moved from one USB port to another (like I do). Is there a way to identify each of the device entries without having to plug each device in? The problem is that I have more devices than I have USB ports available and swapping devices in and out is confusing. And deleting all of the grayed out ones would cause a lot of reinstalling of the “good” ones.
Basically how to determine which of the following unused/grayed-out are valid:
13 grayed-out HID-compliant consumer control devices;
20 grayed –out HID-compliant devices;
23 grayed-out USB Human Interface Devices.

Garry · 3 months ago

Hi: Followed instructions but still did not find hidden drivers/Root Kits;
"C:\WINDOWS\win32k.sys:1";"Hidden driver";"Object is hidden"
"C:\WINDOWS\win32k.sys:2";"Hidden driver";"Object is hidden"

Am I doing something wrong, or is there another technique I can use?

gajendrasingh · 3 months ago

Good

Thanks

itsdhilsen · 2 months ago

Thank you very much buddy............ Thanks a lot for this great work........

ScottieAy · 2 months ago

I know this is a bit late, but this applies to Vista and 7 as well. If you Right Click on My Computer, or Computer, Select Properties, Advanced or Advanced System settings, and Click on Environment Variables, Hit the New button at the bottom under system variables and enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices as the variable and the value as 1. This way you will always have the hidden values!

barma · 1 month ago

good bit of info. still need info on how to remove the drivers. keeps saying "may be required to boot up computer". any help would be greatly appreciated