Show Hidden Devices Trick in XP

[Piyono]

I just stumbled upon a nifty feature I'd not seen before.

From a command prompt type

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Devmgmt.msc

and then in Device Manager go View > Show Hidden Devices.

The device list now shows everything that was ever installed, with missing devices displaying a faded icon.

I've been having a field day deleting all the old hardware references from my list. My Disk Drives list alone has over 130 entries.

Fun!

 

[LiamC]

That is really cool. Thanks!

 

[Tannin]

Very nice. Thankyou!

 

[ddrueding]

Looks like it half-works in Vista. The command is taken, and they are in the list afterwards, but they aren't grayed out. Since I don't remember exactly what I have in there these days, I'll let it ride.

 

[Handruin]

Sweet. Tons of crap cleaned out. Hopefully my machine reboots ok...going to try it now.

 

[LunarMist]

Didn't we do this before, like six or so years ago? Or am I becoming daft?

 

[Mercutio]

Didn't we do this before, like six or so years ago? Or am I becoming daft?

I didn't know I needed to do anything but select "show hidden devices" from the options menu, myself.

 

[LunarMist]

Maybe it was at SR or some other forum and back in the days of Windows 2000. Deleting the extraneous entries did not help my situation at the time.

 

[Piyono]

I didn't know I needed to do anything but select "show hidden devices" from the options menu, myself.

I just set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices to 0 again and even with "show hidden devices" enabled in Device Manager the ghosts do not appear.

 

[LiamC]

I didn't know I needed to do anything but select "show hidden devices" from the options menu, myself.

I just set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices to 0 again and even with "show hidden devices" enabled in Device Manager the ghosts do not appear.

Same here. I've tested this on two "virgin" computers, and if you don't set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices to 1, just hitting "show hidden devices" shows jack

 

[Mercutio]

It should show things like previous video cards or system chipsets. I find it's most useful to "show hidden devices" on machines that have either had a repair install or were installed from a prepared image.

 

[LiamC]

Works in W2K as well.

The 'Set' command is not persistent

 

[Piyono]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241257