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Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager

    XP hides many different devices from you even when the 'show hidden devices' is clicked in the device manager. It will such as a USB stick or a ghosted drive. Their kb article says the devices are not "connected". I can see that claim with the ghosted device, but not the USB stick. There are basically two ways to get around this: set an environmental variable or change the registry.

    • set the variable in the command line
      1. Enter the Command Prompt.
      2. >set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
      3. >start devmgmt.msc

    • set the variable in the system properties
      1. Enter the system properties
        1. advanced
        2. environmental variables
        3. system variables
      2. add the variable devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
      3. set the value to 1

    • change the registry
      1. navigate registry hives
        1. HKLM
        2. SYSTEM
        3. ControlControlSet
        4. Control
        5. Session Manager
        6. Environment
      2. enter new key or the change key
        • data name: DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
        • data type: REG_SZ
        • data value:

          0 = hide devices
          1 = show devices

Comments

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 02:55 — Patty (not verified)

Thank you so much!

Was fretting over this issue and your tip gave me a great way to get around it. Thanks once again!

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