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How to uninstall hidden devices, drivers, and services | Windows installation | Tech-Recipes

Started by qdideas · 9 months ago

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19 comments

  • 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 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
  • Thanks for this a simple solution that stopped the past 4 hours of going round in circles
  • This is just exactly what the doctor ordered!!

    Thanks!

    8)
  • 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?
  • 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 id="quote"><h6>AHappyGuest wrote:</h6>Thanks for this a simple solution that stopped the past 4 hours of going round in circles</ul>
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • <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
  • :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
  • 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."
  • 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 ...)
  • THX FOR THIS!!!!! REALLY HELPFULL
  • very goooooooooooooooooooooood
    this helped me to uninstal lots of old drivers on XP
    thx man
  • 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
  • owowowowowowoowoowwowowow thanks alot i wish i could give a kiss to who wrote this and poasted it thanks alot for reel your awesome
  • 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?
  • 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

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