How to View Non Present Devices in Device Manager

Lets remove all old, non-present, unused, previous hardware devices drivers from your Windows computer. Non-present devices are those devices that were once installed, but are now no longer attached to the computer.

There is a  environment variable that makes the Windows Device Manager show devices that are not connected to the system, but installed anyway. This will make the Device Manager show all devices that you installed but do not use anymore, e. g. Sometimes those entries cause problems when you plug a similar device in, so deleting them might solve problems in that area.

Here's How:

1.Open the Command Prompt by clicking Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, and open it as an administrator. In Windows Vista and later versions of Window operating systems type cmd.exe into Start Screen or Start Menu, right-click on Cmd.exe, and open it as an administrator.

2. At a Command Prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER key:

Code:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1


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3. Open the Device Manager by typing the following command within Command Prompt, and then press ENTER key:

Code:

devmgmt.msc


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4. Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Manager.

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Look for ‘Ghosted Images’ of devices (expand each area). Any device you see that is ghosted is a device that was once installed and is no longer used.  

This is pretty useful if you need to troubleshoot and fix problems caused by leftover drivers. Right-clicking on them and selecting Properties will give you additional information about them.

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    Warning
When removing a device driver be very careful some of the device drivers that are hidden are use by Windows, you should only remove device driver that you are sure wont cause any issue!