DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES in Vista?

I'm looking for this functionality in Vista and the old "DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" environment variable trick in W2K/XP doesn't seem to show the "ghost/unconnected" devices anymore. Does anyone know how to get something like that back in Vista/Longhorn?

Posted by Aaron Tiensivu in Vista at 11:32 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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It still works. Just go to a cmd prompt, type
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc
This way worked fine for me.

#1 Chuba on 2006-12-30 07:03 (Reply)

You can also make this a permanent global variable by following the method outlined here:

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_tips.htm#Environment_Variable:__To_Troubleshoot_Phantom_Devices

#2 John Galt (Homepage) on 2008-05-19 13:22 (Reply)

In Vista you must run the command prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator for this to work.

#3 terb on 2008-07-17 18:31 (Reply)

just remember to run the CMD as Administrator. that's the trick. otherwise it doesn't work.

#4 mark on 2008-08-03 16:31 (Reply)

my sd card, ms/pro, smart media and compact drives kepp dissapearing how do i switc them back on. running vista 32bit

#5 thomas kyle on 2009-02-14 09:54 (Reply)

Here a simple 3 lines sample, copy it to notepad and then save it as "Show All Devices.cmd" (make sure you do write the inverted commas in the file name so the extension will be .cmd and not .cmd.txt)

@echo off
Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
mmc devmgmt.msc /s

put the cmd file anywhere (you can create a shortcut and set it to launch the window minimized so you won't see a bit black cmd window in the back... but it does not really does anything...)

to see really all of the hidden devices you TICK the 'V' in the view menu that says "show hidden devices".
also- a small tip, you view the devices tree sorted by type (default view) in this case you should browse the tree and open sub-nodes to find out what your looking for, or change the view to "devices by connection" (in the "view" menu), this way you've got a wider perspective, you can try to type the first few letters of the device's name to jump right into the relevant line.

Hope that helps,
Elad Karako
http://iCompile.0fees.net

#6 Elad Karako (Homepage) on 2010-09-28 07:41 (Reply)

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