Remove hidden devices, drivers, and services from device manager

[The Recruiter]

Works with windows 2k, XP

Removing Hidden and unwanted driver, device, or service in Device Manager:

1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.

2. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1" (without quotation marks) and press Enter.

3. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.

4. Type "start devmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks) and click press Enter.

5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.

6. Click "+" to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.

7. If there any unknown devices (including grayed out devices), right click it and click Uninstall.

8. Reboot the computer.

Remove all OEM**.inf files

• Open a command prompt (start > run type cmd or command and click ok)
  
• At a command prompt, type the following commands
  
• c:
  
• cd %systemroot%\inf
  
• ren infcache.1 *.old (there is a space between the 1 and the *)
  
• ren oem*.inf *.old (there is a space between the f and the *)
  
• del C:\windows\setupapi.log
  
• Exit

[The Recruiter]

If your troubleshooting USB driver issues follow this additional step:

• Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB that start with VID
  
• Open regedit (Start > Run > Type regedit and click OK)
  
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB
  
• Highlight and delete all the entries that start with VID_

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly

NOTE: If you receive a permissions error right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section. Click Apply, and then click OK.