The program removes disabled non-existent devices. How to remove unused drivers in Windows. Methods for launching the utility

Has it ever happened that you tried to change the port in a device to a specific COM port, only to find that it was in use, but there was no device present in Device Manager? This happens because the device that is connected using that particular COM port is not actually present on your system, but the drivers for that device claim that the device is using the COM port. You can easily view which devices have been configured to use which COM ports in Windows by viewing hidden devices.
If you want to view hidden devices on Windows PC, then you can follow these steps:

Press Win+R to open the Run dialog. Then, to open Device Manager, in the Run dialog box, you need to enter the command devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
In the Device Manager window, select View → Show hidden devices.

You will now be able to see all devices, including those that are hidden because they are no longer present on your system.

The above instructions work in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 without any problems. But if you are using Windows 7 (or more early versions OS), then before using the instructions above you will have to perform some extra work. You must set the DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES environment variable and assign it the value 1 in the following order:

Press the Win+Pause combination to open the system information window.
Press " Extra options systems" on the left in the window that is displayed.
Click on the "Environment Variables" button in the System Properties window.

Under the System Variables section, click on the Create button.

Enter the variable name DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES, set it to 1, and click OK.

Close all previously opened windows by clicking on the appropriate OK buttons. Now you can open Device Manager and follow the instructions as described in the first part of this article to see hidden devices.

Often when Windows transfer from car to car ( virtual machine) there are many hardware drivers left in the operating system that are actually no longer involved in the operation, but can serve as interference. Let's figure out how to identify unused equipment, and how to remove these devices and their drivers?

How to identify unused equipment?

By default, in Windows, the option responsible for displaying unused devices in the Task Manager is disabled. There are 2 ways to enable display of hidden equipment. Which one to choose is up to you.

Note. All the above actions must be done with Administrator rights. It is also worth noting that in this case the main thing is not to remove unnecessary things) Otherwise, the system may simply not boot. This especially applies to drivers and hard drive controller devices.

Enable display of unused Windows hardware via GUI

Press the keys Windows + Break/Pause. (Either in " Control panels" select the item " System")
In the window that opens " System"select item" Additional system properties".
In the window that opens " Properties of the system"on tab" Additionally" at the very bottom click the button " Environment Variables".
In the window that opens " Environment Variables" in field " System Variables" To create a new variable, you must click the " Create…"
In the additional window that appears " New system variable" specify the name and value of the variable .
Ok-ok-ok.)))

Enabling the display of unused Windows hardware via the command line

start -> run (Or click Windows keys+ R) -> cmd -> OK
Enter Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 , Press Enter

Note. In this case, after a reboot this option will be disabled. As opposed to setting a variable through the GUI.

How to remove drivers for unused hardware?

The option to show hidden devices has been enabled, let's now look at the devices themselves and remove unnecessary ones. To do this, open Device Manager Start -> Run -> Devmgmt.msc -> OK. For devices to appear in the "Device Manager", you need to go to the " View"select item" Show hidden devices". Now, if you open any item in the tree (which supposedly contains unused devices), they will have grayed out icons or icons with yellow exclamation mark. By selecting the device with the right mouse button, you can select " Delete". After confirming with the OK button, a reboot may be required.

Original article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539/ru

Best regards, McSim!

Using large number flash drives, external drives, various printers, large quantity devices with m/s and similar ones, hidden devices are gradually accumulating in the task manager. The problem is that these hidden devices are not displayed...

They are not displayed even if you check the “View -> Show hidden devices” checkbox. Here's an example from my PC:

Device Manager - Hidden devices are not visible

At the same time, I know for sure that I have a whole bunch of COM ports, and if not remove inactive COM ports, with each new instance of a device on the FR232RL, the port number will increase, which sometimes causes problems.

In fact, there is nothing complicated. Just a few clicks of the mouse, and here it is:

You can see a whole bunch of inactive devices in the task manager.

To do this you need to: call the application command line(Start - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt), right-click on it and select from Administrator

You need to write two commands in the console:

Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Devmgmt.msc

After entering the first command, nothing will happen; after entering the second command, the task manager will be called. In the task manager, you need to check the “View -> Show hidden devices” checkbox. Will be displayed full list devices, incl. and hidden and inactive devices. Such devices are displayed with a dimmed icon.

In this way, you can permanently and completely remove outdated devices from their task manager.

Tired of setting the value of a variable every time devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices via command line? Set it in environment variables:

After setting the variable, the computer should be restarted. Now anyone can in a convenient way Launch Device Manager and view hidden and inactive devices.

Questions, suggestions, comments - in the comments!

Sometimes it happens that you need to display the drivers of disabled devices and remove old drivers? I'll tell you how to do it:

In short, in order to display the drivers of disabled devices, you need to add the system variable “” with the value “” in the system properties 1 " Then the item “View – Show hidden devices” will appear in the device manager. That's all! Remove unnecessary drivers, but be careful!

If you are not an advanced user, then read the instructions in the pictures on Windows example 7:

Go to computer properties.
This can be done by right-clicking on My Computer or pressing the Win+Pause buttons simultaneously
On the left, select “Advanced system settings”
On the “Advanced” tab at the bottom, click on “Environment Variables”
Then in the system variables or environment variables for your user, click “Create”
Enter the variable name “devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices” and the variable value “1”. Click Ok, Ok.
We go to the device manager. In the menu, select “View – Show hidden devices”
Now “ghost” device icons appear in device lists, which this moment not enabled or disabled.

You can now safely remove them, but do it carefully!

By the way, you won’t believe it, but this useful option helped me once in my life, when I took my laptop in for repairs, and they replaced the battery with a dead one and for some reason changed the processor. I went into the device manager, also displayed hidden devices and in the inactive ones I saw the model of my native processor, and instead of it there was another one. The service center informed me that they had not changed anything in the laptop, neither the battery nor the processor. After I showed them the hidden devices, they returned me the old battery and the old original processor without a word. Just like that

P.S. did you know that driver in the plural, according to the rules of the Russian language, is written and pronounced as drivers, and not drivers. Now know that they are drivers in Africa too.

"Ghost" and hidden devices that do not appear in Device Manager Windows devices(Windows Device Manager), can lead to failures and system conflicts. In this article, we will talk about how to force the Manager to show all hidden devices to make it easier to diagnose problems.

One of the strangest hardware-related flaws is the presence of "ghost" and hidden devices that do not appear in the system, but can cause a system conflict. It will be impossible to diagnose such a conflict even using Device Manager.

There are several types of hidden devices in the Manager. First, it does not display printers, drivers, or other devices that do not support Plug and Play. This problem only affects those with legacy hardware because Plug and Play devices are recognized and installed automatically by XP. If the device does not support this standard, it can be connected to the computer, but will not appear in Device Manager.

Secondly, there are so-called “missing” or “ghost” devices - that is, equipment that was disabled without uninstallation, as well as devices whose removal procedure was incorrect. They are not physically present on the system, but XP believes that they are still connected and allocates system resources. For example, simply removing an old network card without uninstalling it can lead to other similar problems because XP will perceive the card as still present in the system.

Device Manager may also not show temporary devices that are frequently connected and disconnected from your computer, such as MP3 players that are connected only to delete or download new files. Even when similar devices disabled, XP continues to allocate system resources to them. Therefore, when replacing one USB devices on another of the same model it is better to uninstall.

In addition, there are devices that have been moved from one slot to another. XP sometimes treats them as being connected to both connectors and directs system resources to both.

Finding these hidden devices can make diagnosing problems much easier. For example, a hidden device may conflict with a visible one, and sometimes you just need to uninstall hidden equipment - for example, when moving network card, does not support Plug and Play, from one connector to another. But to do this, you need to force Device Manager to show all hidden equipment, otherwise it will be difficult to solve the problem.

Getting Device Manager to show printers, drivers, and other devices that don't support Plug and Play is fairly easy. To launch the Manager, type devmgmt.msc at the command line and click , and then select the menu item “View | Show hidden devices" (View | Display Hidden Devices).

Enabling the display of "ghost" or missing devices is a little more difficult. To do this, you need to set a system environment variable that will force Device Manager to show such hardware. To do this, right-click on the “My Computer” icon and select the “Properties | Additional | Environment Variables (Properties | Advanced | Environment Variables). The Environment Variable dialog box appears, allowing you to create environment variables for the entire system and for individual users. Environment variables define various settings operating system– for example, placement Windows directories and TEMP, as well as the file name and address of the shell that is launched when the command line is invoked.

The Environment Variables dialog box is divided into two parts: User variables and System variables. To create an environment variable for an individual user, use the User Environment Variables dialog box; to create a system variable refer to dialog box"System Variables" In our case, it is necessary to create an environment variable for the entire system, so the “New” button should be clicked in the “System Variables” section. Clicking this button will display the New System Variable dialog box. In the Variable name field, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices. In addition to the name, the variable must also be assigned a value. To enable the display of missing hardware in Device Manager, enter the number 1 in the Variable value field. The completed dialog box is shown in Fig. 13-3. After that, click "OK" to finish creating the new variable and "OK" to close the Environment Variables dialog box.

Figure 13-3. Configure Device Manager to always show missing hardware.

So, the system environment variable has been created. But in order for “ghost” devices to appear in the Manager, it must first be configured accordingly. To do this, launch the Manager from the command line or from the Run window with the command devmgmt.msc and press . Then select the menu item “View | Show hidden devices." After this, the missing devices will appear in the list, as shown in Fig. 13-4. The list of devices should lengthen significantly because it will include drivers that do not support Plug and Play. Typically, devices not connected to the computer are grayed out, while installed devices– black. Some devices may appear several times in the list, as shown in Fig. 13-4.

Figure 13-4. Enable the display of missing hardware in Device Manager.

You can now use Device Manager to diagnose and resolve problems caused by ghost devices, as detailed in Troubleshoot Hardware by Decoding Device Manager Error Messages. If you find ghost devices that are no longer used on this computer, remove them using Device Manager. To do this, right-click on the device and select the “Uninstall” menu item.

Temporary display of missing devices

If you don't want the missing hardware to appear in Device Manager permanently and don't want to set a new environment variable, you can create a temporary variable—for example, for just one launch of the Manager. To do this, enter on the command line and press . No result of the command will be shown - the command line window will remain empty. In the same window, enter start devmgmt.msc and press . After this, Device Manager will open in a new window. Now turn on the display of hidden devices in the same way as you did before.

Keep in mind: Device Manager in this case should be launched from the same copy of the command line as the command devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1. If you run it in another way, the "ghost" devices will not be displayed.