Archive for April, 2010

Removing hidden devices on Windows 2003 2008 Servers

The following procedure will show no-longer-connected devices in Device Manager.

1. Open a command window with elevated privileges (Start -> Right-click “Command Prompt”, select “Run as Administrator”)

2. In the command window, execute the following commands:

  • SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
  • START DEVMGMT.MSC

3. The second command starts the Device Manager, It MUST be started from the elevated-privilege command window for this procedure to work.

4. In Device Manager, click the VIEW menu item and select “Show hidden devices”.

5. This should show any hidden devices. For network adapters, expand the network adapters node. Right-Click any device you wish to remove, and click Uninstall.