Cannot remove orphaned com ports !!!!!

[Hela]

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium (64bit) system and trying to remove orphaned com ports since last few days. After lots of tries finally I managed to make the USB to serial converter working based on FDTI 232R chip but there are yet many extra com ports that am unable to remove.

I tried to do this by going to control panel, selected printers, right clicked anywhere and selected ports tab. Here when I select any port and click on delete, I get the following error message:
“Selected port cannot be deleted. The request is not supported”

I even tried deleting this from device manager but unfortunately these ports are not visible there. Can anyone let me know how can I delete these extra ports ?

[HELLIAN]

I tried it doing with a batch file that worked successfully for me. You can also try out the same and see if it works. Just copy the below code in a notepad and save it as .bat file. Later right click the same and run as Administrator.

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
cd %SystemRoot%\System32
start devmgmt.msc

Let me know if you face any problem yet.

[Hela]

Thanks for the help buddy. I have a small question here (am not expert in computers). Did you tried running this batch file on 64bit OS or 32Bit, because mine is 64bit and I doubt if it work.

Also did you run this from command prompt ?

[HELLIAN]

Nope, min is 32bit Vista and you don’t need to run it in command prompt. As I said just save the notepad in .bat extension and run with administrator rights. This will open in Command prompt itself. Also, as you are using 64bit, I think you will need to change the system32 portion but not sure about this

[NeverOutofTune]

Once I was trying to install a USB RS232 adapter that created few abandoned ports on my Vista 32 bit operating system but I managed to remove them by using this method. Hope it will help you too. Just check:
1) Identify the working port (for me COM11)
2) Identify the orphaned ports (for me was around 6 of them)
3) Keep the USB RS232 adapter connected and restart in Safe Mode
4) Go to Device Manager (within Computer Properties)
5) Open up "Ports" and find the good COM port
6) Right Click on this port and select "Properties'
7) Go to the Port Settings tab and press "Advanced"
8) In the COM Port Number pick list, pick one of the orphaned ports
9) Press OK.
10) You will get a message stating this COM name is being used. Press Yes
11) Repeat steps 8 - 10 for all other orphaned COM ports
12) Assign your device to the port you want
13) Close all windows and Restart