VMWARE: Removing old hardware from Windows after a P2V conversion

1. Open a Windows command prompt and type the following:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

This sets an environment variable that tells the device manager to show all non-present devices.

2. At the same command prompt, type

devmgmt.msc

…which launches the device manager application. Do not try and launch it through the graphical user interface (GUI) instead as the environment variable set in step one only applies to commands run inside the command prompt.

3. Once the device manager window opens, select View from the top menu, and then Show Hidden Devices.

4. If you expand the device categories you will see both present and non-present devices. The non-present devices are shown by the grayed-out icons next to the device names. You can remove them by right-clicking on them and selecting Uninstall. Unfortunately you have to do this one by one as you can not select multiple devices. Click OK at the warning message that appears. If you accidentally delete a device that is present, don’t panic — once you reboot, Windows will automatically install the device driver for it again.

By: E. Siebert