How Do I Remove Unused Devices from My Windows XP/MCE/2003/Vista/7 System?
Here's How to Remove Unused Devices
If you have had many drivers and hardware changes to your system or if you have had several Catalysts installed on your system in the past, or even an Nvidia card installed previously on the same Windows install, not to mention any other previous items of hardware which you no longer use, then this tip lets you remove them from the registry.
To view unused devices in Device Manager, do the following:
1. Open a Command Prompt by going to Start>Run and typing "cmd" (without quotes). Once the MS DOS prompt is open, type the following lines, pressing return after each:
- Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
- Devmgmt.msc
Note, you can type "exit" (without quotes) in the MS DOS prompt window to close it at any time after this.
2. In the Device Manager window that opens, go to the View menu and select 'Show Hidden Devices' - this is very important if you want to see the unused devices. Now expand each of your devices and look through all the sub-components listed. You will see that some of the devices are shown in a lighter grey color.
3. For the purposes of this guide, what we need to look for are entries under the Monitor and Display Adapter devices. Under Monitor there should be one darker monitor entry for each monitor on your system. If there are any greyed out entries, you can remove them by right-clicking on the entry and selecting 'Uninstall'. Do this for all greyed out entries under the Monitor device.
4. Under the Display Adapter device, it is normal for most Radeons to have two entries - a main one, and another one which has '- Secondary' next to it. These just indicate that your graphics card is capable of two separate outputs to two different display devices. You should keep both of these. Do not attempt to uninstall the dark Secondary entry. You can however uninstall all other greyed out entries under the Display Adapter device list.
5. If you're feeling game, you can go through some of your other device entries and delete greyed out devices which you know for certain are no longer connected to your machine, or are traces of a device which has been moved around a few times. For example, under Human Interface Devices you may find multiple greyed out entries for a mouse which you may have moved from one port to another. As long as there is a solid entry for the device when it is still connected to your system, you can uninstall the greyed out ones.
6. A final word of warning - I do not recommend uninstalling devices which you are not sure about. Most importantly, do not uninstall any greyed out Microsoft (or other Codec) entries under the Sound, Video and Game Controller device, and be extremely careful about entries under the Non Plug and Play Drivers, and Network Adapters device list. If in doubt, do not uninstall a device.
If you do happen to uninstall a device which is still connected to your system, it's not the end of the world. Windows will usually re-detect it upon reboot and look for drivers to reinstall it. However I urge you to take caution with the above procedures and only do Steps 1 - 4 above if you have any doubts.
Ropey
