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How can I display hidden (phantom) drivers in Windows 2000/XP/2003?
There are times when you’ll need to manually remove old, obsolete, hidden (phantom) drivers from your system. Looking in Device Manager does not show all the installed drivers, just the ones that are configurable by the GUI.
(Before)
(After)
To force your system to display these old and hidden drivers you’ll need to follow these steps:
Method #1:
Note: Credits to this tip go to Amir Meron, John Bryce.
Note: A faster way for opening up the System applet is to press the Windows logo key ÿ on your keyboard and then press Pause/Break at the same time.
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Method #2:
You can perform the same task by using the registry (or even create a logon script that will add the following key to the registry):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
and give it a value of 1.
Note: As always, before making changes to your registry you should always make sure you have a valid backup. In cases where you’re supposed to delete or modify keys or values from the registry it is possible to first export that key or value(s) to a .REG file before performing the changes.
You might also want to read the following related articles:
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