Device Manager : Hidden Devices

How to Show and Access Hidden and Ghost Devices and Drivers in Device Manager​

This will show you the devices and drivers from programs you no longer use, it will free up some disk space, not to mention help resolve potential conflicts between drivers that are no longer needed.​

   Warning

You do not want delete any Generic Volume Shadow Copy Drivers or Non-Plug and Play Devices before you make sure of their functions as you could disable the PC entirely or at the least some programs / apps will fail to function.

Let's get started!​

1) In the Windows 7 start menu right click computer and select properties, in the "System" window that opens in the upper left pane select Advanced System Settings.

​

2) In the system properties window that opens under the advanced tab select the Environment Variables button, in the Environment Variables window select new, then in the New User Variable window type "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices" (without the quotes) and give it a value of " 1 " then click ok to add the entry, then ok again to finish.


3) Again in the Windows start menu right click computer and this time select manage, in the window that opens in the left pane select Device Manager, at the top click view and select Show Hidden Devices.


4) You can now see hidden / ghost drivers and devices by expanding the entry, they will be faded compared to the others.

Enjoy!

Related Tutorials

---

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15856-device-manager-access-during-windows-7-installation.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/53667-device-manager-shortcut-create.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2803-device-installation-settings.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2791-devices-printers-device-stage.html
• How to Enable or Disable the Device Manager MMC Snap-in
• How to Uninstall a Device in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[zigzag3143]

Excellent Tutorial and I am sure few people know about it.

Thanks

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thank you Ken!

 

[CarlTR6]

Thanks much. I had done this in XP and I had forgotten about it. Excellent tutorial. +1

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks Carl!

 

[derekimo]

Way to go Ted, Great Tutorial. Very Helpful, Thanks.
Derek

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thank you Derek!

 

[NoN]

I used to do it on XP and was the first thing i did on Win7...
DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS, set to 1
DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES, set to 1...

Good remind to get rid of ghost devices!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello NoN, I'm glad you find it useful.

 

[NoN]

Hello NoN, I'm glad you find it useful.

Hi, yes of course!

That's pretty handy when many devices had been plugged onto the computer...then, if you do not need them anymore, it free the place for other one!

 

[severedsolo]

thanks Ted! great tut! would rep you, but havent spread it around enough yet

 

[seekermeister]

I guess that variable was already in my XP, because it would displays ghosts without tweaking. I had wondered why I never saw any ghosts in W7...now I know.

EDIT: I just exorcised the computer, so maybe it will be a bit less quirky. My Logitech Trackball alone had a total of 16 ghosts to clean out. For some reason, I have noticed that the OS has to load drivers for a device that is already installed...such as the mouse. Why it doesn't always continue using the driver installed, I have no idea.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

thanks Ted! great tut! would rep you, but havent spread it around enough yet

Hello SS, thank you!

I guess that variable was already in my XP, because it would displays ghosts without tweaking. I had wondered why I never saw any ghosts in W7...now I know.

EDIT: I just exorcised the computer, so maybe it will be a bit less quirky. My Logitech Trackball alone had a total of 16 ghosts to clean out. For some reason, I have noticed that the OS has to load drivers for a device that is already installed...such as the mouse. Why it doesn't always continue using the driver installed, I have no idea.

I'm glad I could do something to help you out.

 

[DreemWarrior]

Very handy indeed Ted. Thanks!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Very handy indeed Ted. Thanks!

Hello DW, you're welcome!

 

[Johnatan]

Hello

In windows 7 Ultimate, we can find an option 'Show hidden devices' in the Device Manager View menu.
I don't know how it is in other Windows 7 versions.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Johnatan, welcome to Seven Forums; thanks for the info.

 

[seekermeister]

Hello

In windows 7 Ultimate, we can find an option 'Show hidden devices' in the Device Manager View menu.
I don't know how it is in other Windows 7 versions.

It has that option in the Pro version also, but it doesn't really work with the tweak listed above. It seems that in XP that it only worked when in Safe Mode, not at Desktop. I'm not sure if Ultimate is different in this respect or not from Pro, but are you certain that ghosts were automatically displayed at desktop on it without the tweak?

 

[Johnatan]

Hello, please look at this image, got directly from 'Show Hidden Devices' in the Device Manager View Menu. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (french).
The red underlined items are the hidden devices and ghosts

 

[Lomai]

Thanks for the work done and your time Ted

Regards