Show Hidden Devices Trick in XP

Piyono

Storage is cool
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
572
Location
Toronto
I just stumbled upon a nifty feature I'd not seen before.

From a command prompt type



Code:
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!
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
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

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
Sweet. Tons of crap cleaned out. Hopefully my machine reboots ok...going to try it now.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,625
Location
USA
Didn't we do this before, like six or so years ago? Or am I becoming daft?
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,625
Location
USA
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

Storage is cool
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
572
Location
Toronto
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

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Feb 7, 2002
Messages
2,016
Location
Canberra
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

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
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.
 
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