How to uninstall hidden devices, drivers, and services

Contributed by midnite_a

July 8, 2004

Tagged: Windows installation

Works with Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, all SP levels.

Ever have those drivers or devices that just won’t go away even though you’re sure you’ve uninstalled them? Or, say you replace your old 100Mbps network card with a faster Gbps adapter. But, you can’t re-assign it the same IP address because your system insists there is still an adapter installed with that same IP address and you forgot to remove the driver before removing the old card (which is now in your little brother’s pc)?

To get rid of that unwanted driver, device, or service:
1) Open the “Start” menu and choose “Run…”
2) Type in “cmd” (without the quotes) and click “ok”.
3) At the cmd prompt, type in “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1″ (without the quotes) and press enter. (Note that nothing seems to happen–this is ok. We are actually setting an environment variable which is going to help us to see hidden devices)
4) On the next cmd prompt line, type in “devmgmt.msc” (without the quotes) and press enter. This will launch the Windows Device Manager Console.
5) In the Device Manager Console, from the “View” menu, select “Show Hidden Devices”.

Now, as you expand the different drivers and devices in device manager you will see not only the items that Windows currently detects as installed on your pc (these are the usual items displayed), but you will also see drivers, devices, and services which have been loaded in the past but were not uninstalled or are not currently started. You can find your offending device, right-click, and choose “uninstall” to remove it from the system completely.

Be careful though; you should note that non-loaded devices, drivers, and services are “grayed” out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should delete all of them. Only remove items you know you don’t need. And, be careful that you don’t change too many devices or you might need to re-activate your Windows installation.

Last thing, if you accidentally exit the Device Manager Console you will need to start over again at the cmd prompt. To close the cmd prompt window, type “exit” (without the quotes).

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VinDSL, Lenon.com

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

AlexTheBeast

<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

AHappyGuest

Thanks for this a simple solution that stopped the past 4 hours of going round in circles

www.blueonion.net

This is just exactly what the doctor ordered!!

Thanks!

8)

Anonymous

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?

Anonymous

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?

Anonymous

<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>

Anonymous

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.

ItaloVantore

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.

Anonymous

<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

Anonymous

: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

Steve

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."

Jan

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 ...)

Xiotion

THX FOR THIS!!!!! REALLY HELPFULL

MARS666

very goooooooooooooooooooooood
this helped me to uninstal lots of old drivers on XP
thx man

grace

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

donovan

owowowowowowoowoowwowowow thanks alot i wish i could give a kiss to who wrote this and poasted it thanks alot for reel your awesome

Martha

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?

TechMasterJoe

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

Barbara Gallicano

I can't find out what PPSCAN is in hidden devices. It has a yellow bar next to it. Nothing else has this. I lost the sound but have sound when I use the printer that tells me that the printer is printing and when print ends. I don't know if I should remove it. I tried RegTool and they went into my computer but evidently didn't see it or left it. I can't get an answer from them and they refunded my money.
Thank You
Barbara

RangerGord666

Need a way to identify unused devices in Device Manger. I have several entries in the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” and “Human Interface Devices” that are grayed-out and not used. I think this happens when devices are moved from one USB port to another (like I do). Is there a way to identify each of the device entries without having to plug each device in? The problem is that I have more devices than I have USB ports available and swapping devices in and out is confusing. And deleting all of the grayed out ones would cause a lot of reinstalling of the “good” ones.
Basically how to determine which of the following unused/grayed-out are valid:
13 grayed-out HID-compliant consumer control devices;
20 grayed –out HID-compliant devices;
23 grayed-out USB Human Interface Devices.

Garry

Hi: Followed instructions but still did not find hidden drivers/Root Kits;
"C:\WINDOWS\win32k.sys:1";"Hidden driver";"Object is hidden"
"C:\WINDOWS\win32k.sys:2";"Hidden driver";"Object is hidden"

Am I doing something wrong, or is there another technique I can use?

gajendrasingh

Good

Thanks

itsdhilsen

Thank you very much buddy............ Thanks a lot for this great work........

ScottieAy

I know this is a bit late, but this applies to Vista and 7 as well. If you Right Click on My Computer, or Computer, Select Properties, Advanced or Advanced System settings, and Click on Environment Variables, Hit the New button at the bottom under system variables and enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices as the variable and the value as 1. This way you will always have the hidden values!

barma

good bit of info. still need info on how to remove the drivers. keeps saying "may be required to boot up computer". any help would be greatly appreciated

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How to uninstall hidden devices, drivers, and services

Works with Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, all SP levels.

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