USB ports as COM port question

[colombo3]

A friend has an older HP laptop (sorry don't know the model #) that is running XP and has no serial port. He has a device that would normally need to be hooked up to a serial port. He has a serial to USB adapter, but whoever installed it for him "set"(?) his USB port as COM port 6. The software for the new device he needs to hook up only has options to use COM ports 1,2,3, or 4.

Where can we change the settings so that the computer will recognize the USB port as one of these ports instead of port 6? I see in Device Manager where you can specify what port numbers are assigned (under Port Settings and then Advanced), but will his USB port now show up in there? I'm going to be doing this over the phone, so don't have the lappy in front of me to check myself. And he's not very patient or computer savy, so I need to know exactly what to do before I try and talk him through it.

The person that originally set this for him is no where to be found.

Thanks in adavnce for any insight!